Two Sides of the Same Coin
by 2ns
Summary: "When was the last time someone touched you with kindness?" "A long time ago." Now that Snoke no longer holds the reins on the force bond between Rey and Ben, it is a floodgate. Rey can't stop thinking of him, and Ben can't stay away. As they explore the depth of their bond, they find that they are willing to consider extreme measures to find their way to one another. REYLO
1. Chapter 1

"Ben . . ." She neither spoke nor whispered his name. She breathed it, and the breath had started somewhere deeper within herself than her lungs or her heart. The breath, like his name and his presence, his own consciousness now always trembling just beyond discernable sight and dancing in her mind like a twin flame, echoed from the chasm within herself.

Rey allowed her consciousness to seek him out in the darkness, and her thoughts were drawn to him, like iron filings to a lode stone. Like the needle, never failing to find north, she reached out and he was there.

It had been days since she had abruptly shoved him away through the force bond aboard the Falcon. Something had happened to the bond now that Snoke no longer guided it, and rather than withering, it had flourished. Before, one of them had had to consciously reach out towards the other, but now, he was simply always there. Her mind could conceive the sweep of the dunes, stretching from horizon to horizon, but she could not fathom the immensity of cold airless space that always stretched between Ben and herself. Regardless of the distance, his thoughts brushed at her mind whenever she was awake. When they were punctuated by a particularly strong emotion, like fear, or pain, she couldn't discern whether she heard them as though they rose from his tongue or if they existed only in her mind.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Her first two nights aboard the Falcon had been sleepless. She'd been treated for her own hurts, but there were places on her body that ached to the bone, others that seared with the kind of fire that made tears well in her eyes as she laid feverish in her cold bunk. Rey had torn away her clothes and spread trembling fingers over what felt like a deep gash across her upper leg, but was actually smooth, whole skin. Without warning, invisible teeth cut into her fingers, and though the skin was not pierced, a bite was outlined in someone else's blood on her skin. The pain in her leg seared, and she softly moaned. She writhed against the damp pillow.

An icy voice cut through the haze of pain. "You were a fool not to seek treatment before now. Supreme Ruler Snoke would be thoroughly disappointed to see his mighty apprentice brought low by a festering wound caused by a weak, untrained scavenger."

She opened her eyes and felt barely retrained rage and malevolence towards the pale ginger man looming over her. The humid closeness and pervading odor of solvents and hot fuel cells aboard the Falcon had faded away, and instead Rey's nose stung with a sharp astringent stench. The man lowered his face over hers, and though he was clearly trying to hide it, a satisfied smirk was forcing its way across his mouth. Her hands curled into claws with the urge to strike him.

"It was nothing." Though her own lips and tongue wrapped themselves around the words, Ben's voice spoke them into her ears.

Rey arched her back and writhed away from the pain as fine needles probed the phantom wound.

 _Ben . . . What's happening?_

A tangle of emotions flooded through the bond to her. Relief, self-revulsion, anger, frustration, hope, a sulking sense of rejection, and even a gently simmering desire tumbled through the bond in varying degrees of intensity. Ben took a deep breath, and it filled her lungs. When she pressed intense wordless worry through the bond, his relief won out and washed over her, tinged with pleasure and softly glowing with a protective hope. She felt his body relax. The pain remained with the same intensity, but somehow it had been pushed away from his mind, replaced with his acknowledgement of her consciousness twinning his. The wickedly grinning ginger was gone, and Rey thought Ben must have closed his eyes.

His voice in her mind was firm but gentle. _Not now . . . we can't do this in front of him. I can't let him suspect . . ._ Ben's thought trailed off, and she felt firm pressure against her fingers as though he squeezed them between his own.

 _You're in pain._

Something like a smile shimmered through the bond, riding on a wave of warm pleasure even over the pain that probed at his body. It lapped gently against her mind, and it comforted her. Rey smiled back at him in the dark, and though she knew he could not see it, he must have felt it. The warmth of his pleasure deepened and warmed substantially, and his pain receded to a sharp but distant sensation. Tension that had coiled in his muscles released, and he sighed.

 _I can bear it, now that I know . . ._

The bond pinched closed between them gently, and Ben's mind withdrew reluctantly. He had pulled up a wall between them, and she could feel his pain vibrating in waves against the wall. What she had felt as deep agonizing pain before was now a dull ache. Gently, Rey had laid her mind against the wall, and she allowed concern and the desire to comfort to crawl across the surface of the wall like tendrils of smoke. She knew Ben was fully aware of her presence on the other side. The wall vibrated as though buffeted, and she suspected that he used the entirety of his considerable strength to prevent it from shattering and allowing his own agony to wash over her. She pressed her will against his, and she felt an answering hum that she knew was all that he could spare in acknowledgement. In time, she felt the tension break with a soft, silent snap, and the wall between them dissolved. The weight of Ben's mind sank gratefully but wordlessly into her own. Her consciousness cradled his, and she felt him turn his mind away from wherever he was and he was more present. Something like a sigh passed between them, and she knew he slept.

Since that night, the pattern of her own waking and resting had started to subtly change so that she rose a few hours before the other survivors of the Rebellion, and exhaustion forced her to seek her bunk before they did. She suspected that her body was recalibrating itself so that she woke and slept tandem with Ben.

Rey was often distracted. Her attention straggled amidst the discussions and arguments between the shifting factions of the Rebellion leadership. She was never able to fully focus or pull herself away from the impressions that filtered back to her from Ben's mind. One afternoon, she'd had to cower for a couple of hours behind some crates of rations in a bulk head while Ben endured an excruciating treatment he couldn't shield her from. Finn had found her, crouched with her head between her knees and arms wrapped around her head and legs, rocking and sobbing. When he had coaxed her from her hiding place, she'd been too weak to stand and had nearly vomited.

Finn had pulled her arm over his shoulders and was helping her to her feet when Rey felt Ben's consciousness open inside her. Ben was suddenly present in a way he hadn't been in days. For an instant, he was inside her skin.

When he saw Finn through Rey's eyes and felt his arms around her, seething jealousy flooded her mind. Rey felt through the bond that Ben had reached out to comfort and be comforted, knowing that she had endured the pain with him. She felt that Ben loathed himself for both needing the solace he could find only in her and for not having the strength to shield her from the worst of his reflected suffering. Ben had been crushed to find Finn comforting her. When he drew sharply away, Rey felt his sense of betrayal, bitter and black and acrid on her tongue. It tasted like cold, wet ash.

Rey pursued his mind, reaching and grasping for him, but he was too fast. Every time she had nearly caught the trail of his bitter hurt, he twisted and writhed away. Eventually, her mind slammed against his iron will, and she slid down the smooth surface of his icy resolve. She pounded against it with her mind, weak from the hours of his reflected agony, and she called his name into the dark. She heard a sound like one whetted blade grinding against another, and beneath it she felt Ben's cry of despair tear her own throat. Since then, he'd been present but silent.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Tonight, he felt more substantial, more present than he had for days. Tentatively, Rey reached out her consciousness and probed his. She felt his exhaustion. Ben hadn't been sleeping, and when he slept he had nightmares. He was exhausted by the effort of constantly pulling his mind away from hers, and she could feel that an empty, weary kind of gnawing jealousy simmered beneath a brittle need for communion with her.

Rey sat up in the dark from the thin, ancient mattress that covered the shelf bunk, and it creaked beneath her weight. She'd laid awake for hours, hoping that tonight he'd finally relax his anger enough to let her reach out to him.

"Ben." She could feel him start to pull away. _Please stop. I rode every moment out with you; it's not my fault someone found me._

Doubt filtered back to her through the bond. Ben hovered over the cusp of the wall he had erected between them, not wanting to retreat behind it, but afraid to let her consciousness probe his own too deeply. He waited in tense silence, unwilling to go, hoping she would say something to soothe his broken soul, hating himself for aching for it.

 _I felt your pain. What did they do to you?_

 _It was nothing._

"It wasn't nothing."

Rey extended her left hand. Even though her quarters were plunged into such velvety blackness that she couldn't see her hand, she knew Ben wouldn't need light to see her clearly. She could feel the weight of his gaze, and he gasped when he saw the bruise across her fingers and knuckles made by the crush of his teeth on his own hand.

"Why don't they give you anything for your pain?"

 _My master always forbade it._ "He said that such medicine was for the weak. If truly my pain was nothing, it would need no treatment."

Rey had felt a slight movement in the air of her berth, and she knew he was there. She let her relief trickle through the bond, and she felt a cautious pleasure and brittle gratitude tremble in response. _Show me_.

After several minutes of silent, tense consideration, Ben allowed a memory to slide back across the bond to Rey. She saw him crouching over a steel grate at Snoke's feet. Blood oozed from a younger Ben's long nose, and each of his long, delicate fingers were mangled, obviously broken and crushed. Dull agony washed over her, and she felt waves of pain wash from his ruined hands up her arms. It made her head swim, and she nearly retched on the floor. Snoke snarled over Ben, his hand an outstretched and trembling claw. Ben quivered silently at his feet, and blood welled beneath his teeth where he bit into his lip to prevent himself crying out in pain. Snoke grinned maliciously as he forced the shattered bones of Ben's hand to grind together, and after several agonizing moments, Ben finally silently succumbed to the pain and fainted at Snoke's feet. Rey sighed with relief when the aching in her hands and the nausea receded with the memory.

"I felt you beside me. It was . . . soothing."

Through the bond, she pressed a feeling a gratitude that he had returned to her. She showed him her memory of how his pain had receded when he had perceived her concern, including the thread of emotions that had tumbled through the bond with his agony.

With the memory had gone her reaction to his unchecked feelings. She felt him pause when he registered that she had rejected neither his pain nor any of the feelings that had flowed through the bond in that moment. Not even the undercurrent of simmering desire she had awoken in him. She felt him savor the thought for the fraction of a second before a whisper of embarrassment snuck back across the musty dark between them.

Rey rose from her bunk and stretched her fingers out into the dark as she stepped forward. She had noticed that when they were both fully present through the bond, neither of them seemed to be strictly bound by the restrictions of their individual physical spaces. Though she should have been stopped by the wall of her berth in the Falcon after only a few steps, she was able to slowly cross a few yards before her fingertips connected with Ben's.

Ben was nervous and tense. Through the bond, Rey felt the dull jealousy throb, tangled with an intense desire to be touched. She laid her palms gently against his and slid the tips of her fingers between his, though she did not grip his hand. She could feel his breath softly tickle over her face, and the warmth of bare skin radiated from his body, so near.

"When was the last time someone touched you with kindness?"

Ben went stiff, but did not draw away. She felt him pull his emotions back, hard, so that they would not flood into her mind. Rey reached out with her consciousness and gently stroked the manifestation of his will that he was struggling to use to keep the feelings tamped down. She allowed concern to seep around him, and she hummed in silent inquiry through the bond.

She felt his will tremble and soften, though he did not allow his feelings to flow back to her. He finally answered with low, clipped words, "A long time ago."

Rey took another step closer, and she laid her cheek and temple against his chest. Ben gasped, and she felt his will, struggling to hold his emotions back, shake and nearly dissolve beneath their weight. At the last moment, he pulled it tighter. Rey turned her face to the side, and her nose grazed the ridge of a long-healed scar across his breast.

"No one ever touches you at all, do they?"

"No."

A memory escaped, and she saw the needle sharp probes of a droid dart forward with absolute precision as they knit the flesh of his face back together. Rey reached her hand up and laid it on Ben's cheek, covering the scar that was the remnant of her rage. Her thumb stroked slowly across his cheek and up to the bridge of his nose.

"I am sorry." Rey pressed regret through the bond. She felt his will uncoil subtly, and surprise reflected back to her. No one had said that to him since he had been a very small child abandoned at the temple with his uncle. He'd almost forgotten the sound and meaning of the word. Leia's wide brown eyes filled her mind, and Rey reeled with the emotions that came with a mother's soft kiss pressed to his forehead.

"It is nothing."

With his words came a thought he was embarrassed to voice, and Rey saw that he relished the scar. Even when the healing gash had itched maddeningly beneath his mask, it had been a constant reminder of her. At first, it had been a focus of his rage, but he had never had been able to sustain his anger indefinitely, and rage had turned into . . . something else. Curiosity at first, and eventually hope.

Ben had tried to guard his feelings for her from Snoke. He was humiliated by the knowledge that Snoke had anticipated Ben's fascination and attraction to Rey, cultivated it, and had used his heart as a tool to draw her into a trap that nearly cost them both their lives. Ben pulled his feelings back savagely, and thought sullenly at Rey, _It is nothing_.

Rey tipped her hand back and traced the path of the healing scar with her thumb. "Not to me." She looked up into his face and searched his eyes. "Not . . . to me."

Ben's will broke like a dam, and thoughts and memories and feelings washed over her mind. Her consciousness floundered in the deluge, and she lost all sense of where her mind stopped and Ben's began. She saw a beautiful young girl at the Jedi temple with green eyes that tipped up at the corners and sparkled and teased. Rey watched the girl practice forms and felt Ben's adolescent longing for the girl rise within her. Her laugh rang cruelly in Rey's ears, and she felt Ben's crushing sense of rejection. Rey knew what had never occurred to Ben, drowning in his own sense of worthlessness. The girl had been a coquette who had realized she had the power to wound the master's powerful nephew.

Ben's fingers had closed over Rey's hands, and without realizing it, he was grinding her bones together as he scrambled to regain control of his escaping thoughts, memories, and feelings. The last thing Rey saw before Ben crammed his feelings back down inside himself was Finn pulling her up off the floor of the Falcon where she had ridden out Ben's agony. A wall of searing jealousy and rage collapsed around her, this time not filtered through the bond, but with the full force of how Ben had felt it at the time.

Ben ripped his mind away from Rey and released her, but she grabbed his hands, balled into fists, to stop him from retreating from the force bond. Though he tried to keep his feelings guarded, she felt humiliation and jealousy and frustrated desire seethe behind his eyes. She squeezed his enormous hands tightly, and she pressed her memory of Finn tenderly tending to Rose on the Falcon against Ben's mind. When Ben tried to brush it away, Rey persisted, and showed him the way Rose and Finn looked at one another when she had encountered them by chance in a corridor the following day.

Ben turned his face away and jerked at his hands, but Rey refused to release him, even though she felt him receding down the path of the force bond. She abandoned the attempt to show him Finn, and instead showed Ben their battle with the Praetorian Guard. Ben paused, and allowed her to replay her memory against his. Their memories synchronized, their breaths slowed and became one, and they felt their way together through the shared memories.

When she had stood at his back, for the first time in his life, Ben had felt complete. He had felt worthy and cherished and protected; he felt purpose. Rey looked into Ben and saw that there had always been a chasm within him that he had tried to fill with hate and rage after Skywalker's betrayal, but the emptiness had been too great. All his life, he had felt abandoned and unloved, powerless and discarded. Unneeded, dispensable, small, and irrelevant. Unworthy. Undesirable and disposable. Broken, flawed, and dangerous. Warped by Snoke's effort to twist him into an empty mindless weapon. Hot tears coursed down Rey's face when she saw that Ben had felt all of this and more. Dull rage echoed through Rey that Skywalker had seen only a threat, Snoke only a tool.

Ben had felt the moment when Snoke had breathed his last. When his master's consciousness drained away, the force bond had flooded between Ben and Rey unabated. In that moment, he had realized that the chasm within him echoed precisely the size and shape of her soul. With her back pressed against his, for the first time since small child, he did not feel alone.

As the Praetorians fell one after another beneath his fiery blade, he had tried to fight his way back to her. He had even felt the Praetorian blade slash through her arm. When her pain seared through the bond, his own fear was replaced by terror for what could happen to her.

When their eyes met, he had found the calm and balance his uncle had failed to teach him. Ben knew Rey fought for him, and the conflict within him was gone. No longer was there Light and Dark. There was only Rey and entirety of the Force stretching between them, complete and whole. When she yielded her weapon to save his life, he knew he'd never be alone again.

When Ben had felt her disappointment, it had crushed the air from his lungs, but Rey's rejection had nearly broken him. Though it pained him to reveal it, Ben allowed her to see that she had reforged him and then shattered him. He showed her how, distraught, he'd hammered away impotently at the wall she'd erected between them when she closed the door of the Falcon, but had finally given up with despair at her loss.

Rey allowed her feelings to flow back into Ben with her memory of those frenzied moments before Snoke's throne. Through the bond, she had seen the three Praetorians bearing down upon him, and though Ben had set his jaw and thrown himself at them in determined silence, she had roared his rage at the guard before her. She had dispatched him and turned, Ben's comingled fear and bloodlust bubbling up inside her. Though she had cut down every Praetorian between them, another had always thrown himself before her.

She felt the moment when Ben's fear for himself transmuted into fear for her, and above all, she felt his desire to be at her side. To him, she knew she was precious, irreplaceable, invaluable; his certainty filled her own emptiness. His need called to her, and the call was intoxicating, evocative. To be wanted with such intensity, but to snap the bond shut when he had begged for her to join him had taken every ounce of her will. By the time Rey had allowed the wall between them to crumble, Ben had succumbed to exhaustion and had not sensed the agony and regret that had wracked her that night. He had slept through the hours she had sobbed in the dark, whispering his name and reaching out through the bond, not understanding why he didn't answer. Rey allowed the memory to pour into Ben now, and he was both relieved and abashed.

Ben spread his hands around Rey's face, cradling it tenderly. "Come back to me. You know I will protect you. Nothing can stand against us if we are together."

Ben opened his mind just a sliver, and Rey saw that what he promised was true. The thought of hurting her sickened him, and he knew that though his own suffering was agony to her, her loss would break something in him already so fragile that it was constructed of cobwebs and dust motes.

Rey allowed the regret that promised to choke her seep through the bond into Ben, and she saw it cloud his face. "I can't come back and watch innocent people be crushed beneath the heel of the First Order." She felt him begin to withdraw from her, so she wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her body against his fiercely. "I can't be beside you now, but you're never going to be alone again. I won't leave you."

Ben lowered his face and pressed his trembling lips to Rey's. Rey felt hope and desire beat their wings frantically against despair and regret in Ben's heart. She rose on her toes and opened her mouth to meet his kiss, and he released her face and gathered her into his chest. When she returned his first soft, tentative kiss, Rey felt a floodgate of fear unlock inside Ben, and he sobbed with relief that she did not spurn him. The first tendrils of his tremulous nascent love crawled through their bond towards Rey like wisps of smoke. With Ben's arms wrapped around her, every carefully constructed wall between them shredded like wet paper and fell away. As the intensity of Ben's kisses increased, the force bond was forced wider and wider, and years of memories poured between them, fears were revealed, deepest hopes and desires tentatively offered lest they be crushed with derision.

Rey saw that Ben's need to be loved consumed him, and she saw the shape of his future, that with her beside him, he could find balance and become whole. Knowing that his need was laid bare before her, he pressed thoughts like promises into her mind, though each one was tinged with terror that she would turn away his offerings.

He saw her wonder at the beauty of Takodana, and he offered her a vision of a place like a paradise, green as far as the eye could see with two moons and gentle rains in the evening. Rey curled a hand over his shoulder and spread the other across his broad back, and when he pressed her more tightly against himself, Rey could feel that he was losing himself in the joy her acceptance and touch. His kisses became deeper, and she felt the desire of a man aching to be loved flood into her. From his yawning emptiness, his bottomless loneliness, she felt that a rich, boundless passion crouched in fear, hers if she would have it. His touch had become fire, and she was shocked to feel that her own desire was awakened when she felt his body stir against her.

Encouraged to feel Rey's heart opening to him, Ben gave her more of his mind. She caught glimpses of how she looked to him, and she saw she was cherished. She saw herself strong and powerful and defiant, and she felt that it roused him. She saw herself as though she was transparent, and that he felt the force flowing through her, like light emanating from a star, and this vision came with the wonder of a monk looking upon the revelation of a great mystery. She saw something that she couldn't name as dream or hope or promise sneak unbidden from between his loosening grasp upon his emotions, and she saw herself arrayed in costly silks and adorned in jewels like a queen, and he beamed down at her with love.

 _No_ . . . _I don't want that_. At this she pulled away, and she felt his confusion and dread. He looked searchingly into her, both of their minds too deeply locked in their bond to attempt speech, and she saw confusion and doubt and fear cloud his eyes. She searched through her mind frantically, frustrated that he must be able to see the many images that flashed before her mind's eye as she searched for a thought that would explain adequately. Ben began to release Rey with aching sorrow and self-revulsion, and she felt the whisper of her own voice declaring, _Monster!_ , and Ben's poignant, anguished, _Yes, I am_. She clutched him and insisted, _Wait!_

Finally the Force itself presented the answer she sought, and Rey pushed the memory of a dream that had presented itself to her all her life back through the bond. She showed him two trees, one taller with wood like iron, and one shorter, with wood like stone. Each trunk was too wide for even scores of men, linked hand to hand, to wrap their arms around. In the very narrow space between the two trunks flowed a placid stream. The water was inadequate to separate the two, and the branches of the trees were so thickly intertwined over the water that they could not be distinguished one from the other. Beneath the earth, their roots had twined themselves inseparably. Though the light had scorched the earth around them, their shared canopy presided over a golden twilight of idyllic peace rising from fertile earth held fast by their roots.

She impressed upon him that she had dreamed of this long before she had even known what a tree was, but always she had known one of the trees was her . . . and now she saw that the other was him.

Finding her tongue, Rey explained, "For there to be balance, peace, the light cannot be severed from the dark. Life only flourishes in the space between them."

When Ben lifted her chin and reclaimed her mouth, Rey wasn't sure he had understood precisely what she had meant, but she felt his flood of profound relief that she didn't revile him. She could feel his conviction that the Force had bound them inseparably, and for now, that was enough for him.

The deluge of memories, thoughts, and emotions that had flowed between them began to ebb, and as the tide of Ben's tortured soul receded, she felt a growing awareness of the man that bore it. His kisses became simultaneously gentler and more insistent, slower and more intense. Rey closed her eyes and for a moment lost herself in the feel of him in the dark, and through the force bond, she felt something she could only describe as a growl of pleasure that answered something building inexorably and intoxicatingly within her.

Rey was so lost, in fact, that she neither heard nor saw the blaster shot that sang through the dark. She was sunk so deep into Ben's mind, buoyed up by his desire, that when he slowly lifted his face from where his lips were pressed sweetly to her throat, Rey's consciousness looked out of Ben's dark eyes with him. Ben had extracted himself out of the rich reverie between them ponderously to find Finn standing slack-jawed in the open doorway to Rey's berth, unable to comprehend the scene before him. It had taken Rose's shot, blessedly wide from her intended target, to shake Ben from their communion. He was slow to untangle his consciousness from Rey's and as the tendril of this thoughts pulled slowly, so reluctantly away, he felt her alarm sizzle.

 _Don't hurt them!_

Ben released Rey and stepped around her. Rose was about to take her second shot, this time without Rey in the way, and he threw out a hand to force Finn into Rose, slamming both of them into the wall of the corridor.

Ben turned at once to Rey. "Come with me!"

"Go! You can't stay here!"

Ben immediately countered, "It's not safe now—"

Rey cut off his objection with a kiss, and insisted, "Go!" she slammed their force bond shut, and he was gone.

Rey felt Ben's roar of frustration from the other side of their bond, and she could feel him slamming the entire weight of his considerable power against her. He was blind with fear, desperate to get back to her. Rey was shaken by the intensity of Ben's desire to reach her and was struggling with the effort of reconstituting her thoughts and emotions after being ripped away from him. She was almost groggy.

Ben's rage was beginning to reach the same roaring pitch as it had when they fought the Praetorian Guard, once again driven by fear for her rather than anger, but this time amplified a hundred fold by the unsated lust that had built in their final moments together. Rey pressed her eyes shut and though her heart hammered in her throat, she pressed reassurances through the tiniest crack in the barrier between them that she dared allow.

 _Ben_ . . . She saw his saber in his hand and smelled it singe the air. Ben's anger was continuing to build, but this time with a razor-sharp focus she'd never felt within him. No whisper of conflict remained within him, and she felt him summon power that before had remained ragged, raw, and untapped, unreachable before when his heart had been split. She could feel the tension ricochet through his body, and she saw a pair of storm troopers practically scurry for cover when they saw him striding through the corridor.

 _Give me your coordinates! I'll come for you myself. I won't permit them to harm you._

"Stop! Stay there! They won't hurt me. I promise! Please don't come! If you come, the First Order will find us, and all hope for balance will be lost. What you want," Rey pushed the passion and heat of their last few minutes together back to Ben, and she felt his response viscerally echo in his flesh, "could be destroyed so easily. Stay there." _Stay safe_.

Rey saw him stop in the middle of the corridor, and his cloak swirled around him. _Stay safe._ Who had been the last person who had cared if he lived or died? She felt his urge to leap to the attack struggle against his fear that acting rashly could destroy everything. He knew Hux watched him; they all watched him. Ben choked on his fear, but she felt his conscious effort to push it down. Rey was surprised to feel Ben strip something away from the barrier between them, a tapping of her own power, and he wrapped it around his own. She felt his chest heave with deep breaths, but he very intentionally recalled the blade of his weapon. Through their bond, Rey felt his voice growl, _I will feel it if they hurt you. I don't need your coordinates. I will come, and I will kill them all_. With something like a caress, she felt his mind withdraw reluctantly.

Rey shuddered when she felt Ben's mind leave hers. She raised trembling hands in surrender before opening her eyes.

Finn knelt on the floor of the corridor frozen, but Rose had leveled her blaster at Rey, and her mouth was a stone knot. Opening herself to Ben had amplified her sensitivity to the Force to near painful acuity, but Rey didn't need it to feel the sense of disgust and betrayal that shone from Rose's sweet eyes, now narrowed with rage. The blaster fire had summoned a crowd, and though Po had drawn his weapon and pointed it at her, he looked unconvinced. Worse, though, Ben's own mother had also appeared in the doorway, and the look in her eyes was haunted.

"Commander Dameron," General Organa softly commanded, "take Rey into custody. I'd not have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes."


	2. Chapter 2

Rey was exhausted from hours of circular questioning, and she had waited for hours for Ben to reach out to her again. When she had eased her own barriers down, she found that he had thrown his own up. Though she leaned against his walls, she was too tired to try to beat them down.

She assumed that there was a connection between their encounter today and her new Force acuity. Since her lesson with Luke on Ahch-To, she'd begun to be able to clearly sense the Force flowing through each person. Now, she could positively taste it, and she could very clearly distinguish the difference between how the Force flowed through every living creature on the Falcon. Chewie, for instance. She'd always felt that the Force flowed almost sideways through the Wookie, but now she felt the shape of his thoughts as clearly as if he shouted them at her. At the moment, she could feel his rising anger that she had been confined to the brig, and he was starting to question just whose side he ought to be on.

She heard the thoughts of everyone, in fact, except for Ben, though she felt his presence the most strongly. She could feel him vibrating just beneath the weight of the air upon her skin, though he was careful to keep the link between them serene and silent. She reached out her feelings to him, and though he didn't answer as such, she felt his presence shift in response, and the air around her seemed to tighten and then sigh.

"Are you trying to call him again?"

Rose had refused to leave Rey, and had kept her blaster trained on her for hours unwaveringly.

Rey sighed in resignation. "Yes."

"Would he come if you called him?"

Rey's "Yes," came with firm certainty this time. She continued, "but he's not answering me. Something is happening where he is, and I don't think he wants me to know."

"Probably destroying another innocent civilization."

Rey sighed again and turned on her side to see Rose through the bars. She idly traced the contour lines etched into the surface of the brig bunk. "Ben didn't destroy the last one. When Hux ordered the destruction of Hosnian Prime, Ben felt their fear and pain acutely. It was excruciating to him."

One of Rose's brows shot up skeptically. "Ben . . . you mean Supreme Leader Kylo Ren."

Rey felt a shift within Ben's consciousness, and she sat up, hoping that he was going to let her in. Focusing on the barrier between them, she answered distantly, "I mean . . . Ben." The barrier between them shimmered for only an instant, and Rey felt a surge of warmth and affection tinged with longing and fear before he withdrew again. Rey gasped with surprise and pleasure and flexed her fingers as though she was about to lift her hands in welcome. Without glancing at Rose, she continued, "Kylo Ren was always the fiction; beneath the mask was only ever Ben Solo."

"How long has this been going on?" Finn's voice was steely when he stepped into sight, and it cut through Rey's brief reverie.

Rey glanced up to see Finn standing behind Rose, and guilt squirmed in her belly. "Snoke built a bridge between our minds with the Force . . . or maybe it was always there, and he just allowed Ben to become aware of it. When I went to find Luke Skywalker, Ben came to me and we spoke several times. Eventually, we realized that when our minds were linked, we occupied the same physical space as well. On my last night there, our fingers touched, but Luke felt Ben's presence immediately and interrupted our link."

Rey approached the front of the cell so that only inches separated her from Finn. She looked up into his face and felt his disappointment and betrayal keenly when he looked down at her. "When I touched him, I saw his future, and it was clear. I will bring him back from the Dark Side."

Rose huffed skeptically. "That's not possible. You can't bring someone back from that kind of evil."

Finn held Rey's gaze. "Did he turn?"

"When Snoke was torturing me for Skywalker's location, Ben saved me. He killed Snoke, and together we killed the entire Praetorian Guard. In the end, though," Rae looked down at her hands, and they twisted a bit of wire that her fingers had worried from one of the carbon-encrusted crevices between the bunk and the wall, "he wasn't ready to leave the First Order yet."

"Does he know where we are? Did you tell him?"

Rey looked up sharply at Rose. "Of course I wouldn't tell him where we are!" Her tone softened, "But he can find me no matter where I am. He can come to me whenever I permit it."

Rose straightened her arm and adjusted her grip on the blaster. "Then we aren't safe so long as you are alive."

The link between Rey and Ben was instantly electric, and she felt his anger sizzle through the barrier. Rey tried to prevent her face from registering the change, but she could see in Finn's eyes that he had seen it.

"If he wanted us, he would have taken us already. I hope that he is doing whatever he can to mislead the First Order away from where we are going." Though a silent urging from the barrier pressed her to continue, Rey refrained from telling them that nothing in the universe would have the power to stop him if something happened to her. "I believe that Ben is our only hope for restoring balance to the Force and finding peace with the First Order. The Rebellion is too weak. We are broken; only a handful of us remain. The only way to stop the First Order now may be to try to stop it from the inside."

Rose tightened her grip on the blaster and practically spat, "And you think that the Supreme Leader himself will suddenly have a change of heart?"

Rey felt the Force breathe into her. Rey tipped her head slightly and glanced between Rose and Finn. She smelled hot metal, the rank sweat of fear, and when she licked her lips, she tasted coarse grains of a metallic salt. "I believe that the only way there will ever be peace is if we put our strength into preserving what we love, and stop trying to destroy what we hate."

Rose's mouth popped open, but before she could respond, Finn asked in hurt surprise, "Are you saying that you're in love Kylo Ren now?"

Rey looked down at the scrap of wire she twisted between her fingers to hide her smile. The frisson of anger and anxiety that Ben couldn't contain went still. Clearly he was listening. She pressed a feeling of warmth back towards the wall that ringed her consciousness before answering, "I know it's hard for you to understand, but I am inseparably linked to Ben Solo now. If you cut him, I will bleed. I feel the light in him, and it is the same light that is in me."

Rose stepped closer to the bars. "And the darkness? Is his darkness in you too?"

Rey narrowed her eyes defiantly. "Yes. That's why Luke Skywalker refused to train me. We are two sides of the same coin. Inseparable, and only complete when we are joined."

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Rey retreated to the deepest corner of the brig cell and refused to answer any more questions, even when Finn pled with her to talk to him. Eventually, she felt both Rose and Finn move away from her cell, and she laid down on the floor. She could feel the ship vibrate, and she could hear the engines purring through their light-speed cycle two decks down. Slowly, the tension began to drain from her, and she fell asleep.

When Rey woke, it was to warmth at her back and gentle kisses along her neck. She turned to see Ben behind her. She was still sprawled on the filthy floor of the Falcon's brig, but her head rested on Ben's arm, and his now familiar scent surrounded her.

"Are you really here?"

"Yes," He stroked the back of his fingers down her face. "but I'm also on a dreadnaught pointed in the direction of an Outer Rim moon that I told Hux was where I sensed the Millennium Falcon was headed."

Rey sat up abruptly. "Millions could die! You can't just misdirect him and expect there to be no consequences."

"It's a long-abandoned mining colony far from any inhabited planet. An enormous number of invertebrate sea creatures could die, but it's the best I could do under the circumstances."

Rey slumped back against the peeling wall. "What will Hux do when he realizes you have mislead him?"

Ben pursed his lips as he sat and scooted closer to Rey. "I'm the Supreme Leader; his options for retaliation are limited. I suspect he will continue to do what he has done for some time—take advantage of every opportunity to undermine my authority, gather petty men with a taste for death around him, and look for an opportunity to strike me down. For today, he will do nothing."

Rey paused and reached into Ben with her feelings. "What aren't you telling me?"

Ben dropped his head and shook it briefly. "Nothing that matters." When Rey didn't respond and narrowed her eyes at him, he continued, "I think that the force bond will make it almost impossible to lie to you." He quirked up one corner of his wide mouth and took one of her hands and pressed it to his heart. "Can you not sense what I'm feeling?" Ben reached out to her through the bond as well and answered his own question. "I know you feel it too."

"I feel that there is something still troubling you . . . something about Snoke, something about Hux, something you can't see."

With his thumb, Ben stroked the length of one of her fingers. _You're cold_.

 _What's troubling you? What don't you want me to see?_

Ben shrugged. "There were rumors that Snoke had another apprentice, but the Force is clouded when I look there for answers. If there is another . . . it could be catastrophic. It will take some time to see the cracks in the men beneath me and to exploit them . . . but right now, I am here with you."

Ben leaned forward and nuzzled his nose against hers before kissing her gently. Rey wrapped her arms around his neck and returned his kiss at first tentatively, but within moments, the same searing heat that had consumed them in her quarters was building between them again. With his pleasure and desire reflected directly back to her through their bond, neither of them could resist the singing of their blood.

When his kisses trailed down her neck, Rey tried to surface from the haze of their shared desire, and she asked, "I don't understand, are you here, or are you on the dreadnaught?"

She felt Ben's eloquent shrug. "I don't understand it any better than you do. I feel my bed beneath me, but I feel your body beside me." Ben pulled her closer with a hand at her waist. "I think that if I chose it, the Force would make this my reality, and I would cease to be there. Don't I feel real to you?"

Rey pushed his hair out of his face. "You feel real to me even when you aren't here. Could you travel anywhere you wanted using the Force?"

Ben shook his head and dropped a kiss onto Rey's bare shoulder. "I tried. I think I could project, but not actually move. I think it is part of the force bond; I can only travel to you. Two sides of the same coin."

"It's not safe for you to be here. Rose is dying to shoot one or both of us."

Ben lowered his face into Rey's. He kissed her soundly and continued, "Then come to me now. We have the power between us—I could take you from here. I still want you beside me."

"I still can't watch the First Order destroy everything in its path."

"Then come to me and help me stop them. Even if I killed Hux, there are thousands of officers below him hoping to take his place. Millions of troops who have been conditioned to be mindless killers." Ben searched her eyes. "There could never have been a rebellion big enough to blow all of the First Order's fleets from the sky." He kissed Rey gently and laid his forehead against hers. "If you want to stop it, you will have to do it from inside. It will take more than the two of us, but I would try. For you, I would try."

Concern creased Ben's features, and he looked up as though listening. "We are dropping out of light speed." He held her face in his hands, and he sensed a twinge of doubt behind Rey's eyes. "The Force is strong with you. If I am false, if innocent lives are destroyed because I lied, you will feel it here," Ben laid his hand over her heart, "but more importantly, you will feel it in between us."

Ben pressed another kiss to her lips and then he was gone. Rey laid back down, and soon fell asleep with her fingertips holding his touch against her lips. The next time Rey woke, she was back on the hard bunk of the brig, and General Organa's eyes bored into her, her elbows braced on her knees.

"What did my son tell you to turn you away from us?"

"My loyalty to you has never waivered. I will fight beside you until my last breath, and I know that soon, he will too."

Leia stood and looked down at her. The tumble of emotions within her was hard to read, and she felt that the general was somehow blocking her feelings from Rey. "It's hard to believe you, wrapped in a First Order cloak."

Surprised, Rey looked down. Sure enough, a heavy First Order cloak, woven from a fiber both exceptionally fine and able to hold in her body heat against the cold of space was draped over her. By the way it cascaded over the end of the narrow bunk and pooled on the floor below, it was easy to see that it belonged to a man of startling height. Though she was embarrassed for General Organa to see her do it, Rey gathered a handful of the cloak and brought it to her face. Leia lifted a brow and crossed her arms in expectation.

"Well? Is it his?"

Rey closed her eyes and sniffed delicately, but when she caught his scent in the folds of the cloak, she couldn't stop from taking a deep breath to draw him into herself. Tears glittered between her lashes and she nodded.

Rey reached out her feelings for Ben, suddenly overcome with longing. Ben had wanted to know when she realized his gift and hadn't raised any barriers between them. When he felt her mind, Ben realized that she was touched and felt her heart call to him. In response she felt his silent promise that he would return soon, and his deep satisfaction settled into her heart. She could feel that his ache for her was genuine, but that her welcome intrusions into his mind were making it difficult for him to concentrate on the subterfuge with Hux.

Rey was becoming alarmed by how thoroughly the force bond between them was pervading her mind and her emotions, but she felt the same changes in Ben, so she thought it was unlikely that he has somehow manipulating her. Perhaps this was why Snoke had so carefully restricted it. She feared that Ben would be discovered as she had been, but that the consequences would be much more severe. She felt Ben shrug off her worries, and a feeling like his lips pressed to her cheek warmed her skin. Rey laid her hand over the place he'd have kissed her had he been present. General Organa cleared her throat, and Rey returned to the present with a jolt.

Leia leaned against the wall, watching Rey with interest. "I know he was here, and he was present to you, but the cameras can't see him." She lifted her chin in the direction of the concealed cameras in the brig. "Finn and Rose saw him, and the cameras show how you react to him, but he doesn't appear. That cloak's real enough, though, isn't it?"

"It's his. I know it is."

"So do I. I don't know what you've done to him, but I can feel his presence when he's here. I can follow the path between you and him in my mind, and I know it is strong—stronger than any bond I've ever felt between two people." Leia leaned closer and continued conspiratorially, "Bring my son home, but don't get us killed in the meantime."

Leia swung the door of the cell open nonchalantly, and Rey's brows shot up in surprise.

"It wasn't locked?"

"No! Han locked a pair of Bahn Su up in here one night, and they melted the lock with that damn ridiculous sound they make. Besides, what point would there have been? You practically lifted a mountain off us to get us out of that base when the First Order closed in on us. No doubt you could have opened a lock with the Force. If you had wanted out, you'd have killed Finn and Rose and have taken control of the ship by now. Chewie's been telling them that for hours and damn near killed a couple of the more vocal Rebel leaders that thought they should eject you at light speed in your sleep." Leia grinned. "He seems unwilling to lose his new copilot."

Leia walked into the cell and sat on the bunk beside Rey. "I watched the whole time, you know. The only thing you did for hours was try over and over to reach Ben. Not once did you ever try to leave your cell. I felt it every time, and I felt him resist you, though I could tell it got harder and harder for him. You called for him in your sleep, and I think it broke Finn's heart a little bit when he saw how relieved you were to finally have made contact with Ben.

"I don't know what passed between the two of you, but know what it feels like when a man reaches out to a woman with his soul and the Force shivers with its approval. Be careful of him. He is strong and capable of so much more than even he imagines." Leia sighed and concluded, "I imagine the amount of damage you're likely to do is minimal, but I'd lose the cloak. It will make what remains of my Rebellion nervous."

Rey dipped her face and brought another handful close enough to smell it again. She smelled the exhaust of light fighters, carbon, and the astringent smell that she now knew pervaded Imperial bases, but above it all, she smelled Ben.

"No. I refuse to believe that Ben will set himself against us. Maybe if what remains of the Rebellion know that I believe in him, they will come to in time as well."

Leia shook her head sadly and walked away in silence, though she privately admired the girl's courage and stubbornness. If anyone could bring her son back, perhaps it would be her.


	3. Chapter 3

Rey staggered drunkenly through the curving corridor to her chambers. The thoughts and feelings of the crew buzzed in her mind, and she had to fight off the urge to physically swat them away with her hand. _I'm free_.

 _I know_. Ben's answer was clipped but gentle.

When she collided with a tall pilot, she looked up and saw his face. "Ben?"

Knowing Ben wasn't there, she blinked a few times and realized the pilot wasn't even the right species. Around his many short green tentacles, the pilot gurgled in a tongue she didn't know as she stammered her apologies. Rey felt a flutter of amusement through the bond. _I'm not Kertallian. You should eat something; you're delirious._

When had he last laughed? The shape of his amusement warmed her, but before she could answer him, Ben's mirth was abruptly replaced with shock. She felt him go rigid. Rey froze in the corridor, instinctively reaching for the lightsaber that wasn't there. _Where are you? What's wrong?_

Ben allowed her to see through his eyes, and she saw a beautiful purple planet with dozens of moons orbiting it. _Is that the Outer Rim?_

Ben's vision shifted, and she saw Hux standing arrogantly erect several paces before Ben, his arms clasped behind his back. _It certainly is not_. _I need to concentrate_ . . . Rey released him and backed away from his consciousness before a cool, thin barrier slid up between them.

Rey blinked again and shook her head slightly. Her head was considerably clearer now; some of that buzz must have leaked through from the dreadnaught. She nearly jumped out of her skin when she opened her eyes to find an annoyed Finn planted in the middle of her path and glaring at her.

"Good talk with the boyfriend?"

"He's not—"

Finn grabbed her arm and turned her back down the corridor. Ben's cloak swirled in the narrow corridor and smacked heavily against the wall. Finn looked down at her with disgust. Rey saw a glimpse of Kylo Ren striding through Starkiller Base in a towering rage and felt Finn's cold dread slide down his spine as he passed. "Yeah, I saw. I know exactly what he is."

Rey made a feeble effort to jerk her arm from Finn's grip. "Leia released me. Where are we going?"

"Chewie wants you in the cockpit."

Rey planted her feet in the corridor. "No! If I go to the cockpit, Ben will be able to see where we are!"

Finn rounded on her. "Is that a problem? I thought he already knows where we are?"

Rey chewed her lip, considering. "He can find me through the force bond; he doesn't know our coordinates. If he knows, someone else could try to take that information from him. I think it's better if I don't know."

Finn crossed his arms and fumed in silence, considering. "Chewie has been flying the Falcon alone for days while you've been . . ." Finn gestured vaguely in her direction with both hands, "whatever." A variety of expressions crossed Finn's face in quick succession, but something occurred to him, and he asked, "Just what do you know about navigating space?"

Rey's brows drew down in indignation. "I can fly!"

He rolled his eyes. "I know that. What do you know about navigating?"

Rey considered. "I'd never been off Jakku until I met you. I learned to fly because the junkers used us to test small craft they had reassembled. I wouldn't even know Galactic Standard if they didn't need us to be able to read the labels on components we were salvaging."

"Do you even know the coordinates of Jakku?"

Abashed, Rey answered, "No."

"So you could pilot this boat without knowing where you're going?" Finn lifted his brows in expectation.

"I suppose so."

Finn jerked his hand out. "Right this way."

When Rey looked blankly at him, Finn strode down the corridor with full expectation that she would follow. Rey sighed and her boots pounded on the floor grate as she caught him up. "Finn . . . where we are going, is it purple . . . kind of misty?"

Finn glanced over his shoulder. "Purple? No, why?"

"Ben ordered Hux to go to an abandoned Outer Rim mining colony, but when they dropped out of light speed, that's not where they were." She looked darkly at Finn. "Hux disobeyed him." Finn raised a brow in silent surprise, but Rey's eyes widened. "We aren't in the Outer Rim, are we?"

Finn's expression softened, and he searched her face. "No. We're not even in the same galaxy." He continued slowly, asking the question and yet not, "Kylo Ren knew where we were and he drew them off." Rey nodded. Finn tensed his lips, considering, but finally answered, "OK."

Finn said nothing else until they turned into the cockpit. Their course must have been set to take them through light speed for several more hours, because the chair before the console was tipped far back, and the Wookie's long hands were curled on the floor as he snored while the autopilot guided the craft. Finn shook Chewbacca's shoulder, and he came instantly awake, flailing and reaching for a weapon. He slammed a fist down on the console, and the ship began to shudder, red lights flashed everywhere, and a shrill siren began to pulse.

Rey pushed Finn aside, and flipping a sequence of switches, commented, "That, my friend, is how you burn out the hyperdrive motivator."

Rey turned and leaned against a cracked display to look down at her friend. He mewled softly in an interrogative.

"I think so. Let me do this for a while."

Chewie stood and nodded at Finn before ducking out of the cockpit. Finn watched him go thoughtfully. "He damn near took a couple of guys apart when they put you in the brig. The General is the only person who he'd listen to." Finn glanced guiltily at Rey. "I think he's the only person in the Rebellion who didn't think that Kylo Ren had turned you."

Rey leaned over the console, starting an in-flight diagnostic to avoid looking at Finn. Han and Chewie never ran the diagnostics, so they often missed small problems that would end up being calamitous later. She didn't think they had the luxury of losing the Falcon now. "What . . ." Rey took a deep breath and plunged on, "What did you see?"

Finn fumbled and nearly dropped the ridged orange capacitor he was turning over in his hands. In an effort at nonchalance, he dropped into Chewie's vacated chair. He tipped his head at an angle and lifted his brows. "I should have hailed, but it was so early, and I didn't think you'd be asleep—I just didn't think." He glanced guiltily at Rey. "It was so dark, I didn't see him at all at first. Rose thought she was saving you. She thought Kylo Ren was taking you, but when he looked at me . . ."

Rey allowed herself to slip into Finn's mind, and she saw how Ben had supported her, one hand in the small of her back and the other cradling her head. Rey had grown warm, and she laid her hand on her neck where Ben had planted his ardor, as though to trap it there. She closed her eyes as she watched Finn's memory, and felt again the fine woolen cloth over Ben's shoulder where she had laid her head. She saw Ben's face emerge from her neck, his black hair disheveled, and his eyes were unmistakably soft and clouded with desire. Rose may have misinterpreted Ben's arms around Rey as capture, but a man would never have mistaken Ben's expression for anger. Even in Finn's mind, time had slowed as he struggled to make sense of what he saw, and the look he had shared with Ben seemed to have stretched on for minutes. Finn had been as surprised by Rose's shot as Ben had been.

The thin barrier between Rey's mind and Ben's trembled, and Rey sensed that he had noticed the change in her emotions. She felt a wordless question press against her mind before the veil dropped, and Finn's memory flooded into Ben's mind as well. Now tethered between the two men's minds, Rey felt Ben's intake of breath as he relived the moment with her. When Rey opened her eyes, she saw Ben standing behind Finn's chair, his hand resting on the back. Ben took her in, leaning against the console, her hand on her neck. _You look like you are waking from a dream_.

The corners of Rey's lips quirked up. _Maybe I am_. Ben looked away, his mouth trembling towards a repressed smile, but Rey felt the warmth of his pleasure glow through the force bond.

Finn's words had trailed off, and he looked up at Rey. "He looked like . . . It looked like . . ." Finn followed the direction of Rey's gaze, but Ben had gone before Finn saw him. "It looked like I was interrupting."

 _He was._ Rey couldn't conceal her smile at Ben's last words before his consciousness disappeared behind the thin veil again. Kylo Ren apparently has a sense of humor. The veil between them thickened slightly and answered with a deep rumble.

"You're going to have to work on that." Rey opened her eyes, and the smile slid from her face like cold water. Finn looked sharply up at her. "Anyone can tell when you're talking to him. He was here—just now?" Rey nodded, and his disapproval was obvious. "I hope for both your sakes that he hides it better than you do."


	4. Chapter 4

_Is that the Outer Rim?_

Ben lowered his face but flicked his eyes up at Hux, standing in the middle of the dreadnaught bridge as though he owned it. _It certainly is not_. He ground his teeth together and strode through the bridge, the sharp snap of his heels on the polished steel floor echoing back to him. _I need to concentrate._ He had long ago learned to tune out the constant drone of the many souls aboard an imperial vessel, and while Rey's constant presence over the past few days in his mind was a balm, Ben wasn't ready to let her feel the kind of rage that Hux normally aroused in him. The connection between them was still too fresh, too tenuous, too precious.

"I don't remember asking you to take us to Teerius 4."

Hux had the audacity to sneer at Ben over his shoulder. "Merely a brief pause on the way. We were already scheduled to take on fuel and a passenger." Hux nodded at a helmsman; he had already anticipated Kylo Ren's objection. "Supreme Leader Snoke approved the manifest in his final hours."

Ben glanced at the manifest the helmsman had brought up on the display. "Who." The word came out a demand, rather than a query.

"Supreme. Leader. Snoke."

Ben glanced up at Hux. Hux's mouth was pinched into a malicious smirk and his eyes danced with the insult. "The passenger," Ben growled. "Who is the passenger?"

"Doesn't the manifest say?"

Ben straightened and closed the few steps to Hux. Though Kylo Ren stood a couple of inches taller than Hux, Hux refused to lift his chin to meet his eyes, instead rolling them up to glare at Ben from beneath his eyebrows. Ben turned his face to growl quietly into Hux's ear. "You know it doesn't. You would do well to remember that I am Supreme Ruler now."

Inclining his head with an ostentatious roll, Hux hissed back, "You must think I'm very stupid. Do you think I haven't seen enough carnage caused by your weapon to know the difference between the bloody, jagged mess it makes of a corpse and the clean cut a more elegant weapon makes?" Ben froze. In the years of wearing a mask that disguised the play of his emotions across his face and in his voice, Ben had forgotten what little he had learned about concealing the feelings that seemed to always be boiling just beneath the surface. When Hux's smile broadened, he knew that he was failing to conceal his shock and fear completely. "Over half those Praetorians were cut down by your lightsaber, Supreme Leader, and some of them bore wounds from both your blade and hers. In fact, there is some speculation that the worst of your wounds were . . . self-inflicted."

"It is the way of the Dark Side that when the student becomes more powerful than the master, the master is removed."

One of Hux's brows twitched up in what could have been construed as concession, but wasn't. "I pray you will find an adequate student soon."

Ben's fingers twitched, and Hux's windpipe slammed shut. "For your sake, I suggest you get these rumors under control. Men in your position have found themselves replaced for less." Ben released Hux to collapse onto the floor and turned to the helmsman. "Get the fuel on board; strike the passenger from the manifest. Get us—"

"You can't do that!" Ben was shocked to hear Hux's choked voice. "Supreme Leader Snoke—"

Ben's lightsaber roared into life. "Is dead."

The dreadnaught bridge became very quiet and very still. The helmsmen refused to look away from their displays, frozen in place in terror. Ben advanced on Hux, and Hux was forced to crawl backwards at a ridiculous pace as Ben strode back up the length of the bridge with the blazing tip of his saber a hair's breadth away from Hux's throat. Hux's hands made a wet smacking sound as they scrabbled, and the heels of his boots squeaked as they pushed frantically against the slick floor. He looked up at Ben with deepest loathing, bathed in the blazing heat and blooded glare of Ben's blade, but didn't blanch when Ben continued, "Contradict me again, and you will be too. Count yourself lucky that I do not provide the same courtesy for Snoke's guest."

"Supreme Leader, sir."

Ben did not take his eyes away from Hux to address his lieutenant. "What is it?"

"Snoke's passenger never showed up at the docks, sir."

Ben's blade winked out. "How interesting. That's probably best for all involved. Get us underway."

Ben took the last few steps into the lift and punched the code into the terminal hard enough to snap the plastic covering one of the input keys. Too close. That was too close to insubordination. Too close to mutiny. Too close to the truth. He propped his arm on the wall of the lift and pressed his damp face into his sleeve. If he didn't deal with Hux decisively soon, whether or not he was the Supreme Leader would likely be a moot point.

Ben stood straight again in the lift and flexed his shoulders, trying to reign in his fear and anger. Without willing it, his mind drifted toward Rey's consciousness, and through the barrier, he could feel a warm pull as though he was being quietly summoned through the barrier between them. Curiously, Ben let the barrier fall, and he saw himself holding Rey in her quarters, but from a different angle. Though he'd not registered it at the time, he now heard how she had sighed when he had traced the arch of her throat with his kisses, and he drew a quick breath when he realized that even now, he could still taste her skin against his tongue.

His quarrel with Hux forgotten, Ben was anxious to see her again. He followed her consciousness and found her half seated. By the way the light undulated over her skin, he guessed that she must be in the cockpit of the Falcon, and they were still travelling at light speed. Her head was tipped back as though to receive his kiss, her lips barely parted and almost smiling, and her eyes were closed. Rey laid a hand against her neck and turned her head slightly into her shoulder, and she rose slightly on her toes. Though he sensed someone else in the room, Ben stepped forward and reached for her.

As though she sensed his presence, Rey opened her eyes, looking for him. _You look like you are waking from a dream_.

Ben was used to glares of hate and revulsion, mouths twisted in disappointment, and even occasional sneers of grim approval. He was used to no expression or acknowledgement at all from scores of anonymous storm troopers. Nothing in his chaste upbringing in his uncle's temple nor the cold, sterile hostility of the First Order had prepared him for the sight of a beautiful woman smiling sweetly at him with pleasure and invitation. He admired her courage and strength, was inspired by her defiance and spirit, but was completely undone by this.

 _Maybe I am_.

A lifetime of being forbidden emotional attachments of any kind . . . Ben looked away with embarrassment, ashamed that he should so desperately want to touch her, but aching to do so nonetheless. She'd given him so much already, and he was fully aware of his unworthiness. From the few years he remembered bouncing from space port to bunker, base to compound, chasing bolts rolling across the tilting floor of the Falcon, he remembered clearly the way his mother had often looked at his father. Between fights and eyerolls, Leia had looked at Han as though the entire light of the galaxy had been compressed into his lanky frame. In those moments, he knew that for her, all of creation shrank to a tiny shred of warm incandescent space that contained just them. He'd never have imagined that a woman could look at him in the same way. Hoping to hide his obvious pleasure, he stepped back through the force bond.

Through the glow of his pleasure, Ben dimly heard Finn. "He looked like . . . It looked like . . . It looked like I was interrupting."

Ben couldn't help himself from interjecting, _He was._ The bond between himself and Rey shimmered, and he realized that that must be what a laugh felt like when it passed through the veil of the Force.

 _Kylo Ren apparently has a sense of humor_.

Ben pushed the barrier closed more firmly. _No, but I do_.


	5. Chapter 5

_That's not going to work; the crystal housing is cracked. If you connect it to the power cell like that—_

"Ow!" Ignoring Ben's advice, Rey had touched the coupling that housed the primary crystal of the light saber to the power cell, and blue lightning had ignited from the crystal and danced for an instant up her arms nearly to her shoulders.

"Are you OK?"

Ben sighed heavily through the bond. _You're fine. It does that._

Rey ignored Ben's comment but glanced up at Finn to nod curtly. Finn had insisted that she present herself for the nightly circular arguments amongst the Rebel leadership that they primly referred to as strategy sessions. Even if she wasn't distracted by the constant buzz of the undercurrent of their thoughts, much of the conversation revolved around places she'd never seen, battles she was too young to have been in, and the obscure tactics of people she'd never heard of. Aside from being an able pilot and an innate connection with the Force, she had little else to offer.

From a young age, Finn had been trained in combat, and was able to offer significant input as to First Order tactics and capabilities. Between contributions, he kept up a running monologue, murmuring rapidly under his breath, in an effort to translate the conversation to a level that Rey could understand. At first she had tried to follow his explanations, but had abandoned the effort twenty minutes into the first strategy session. Instead, she had brought with her the remains of Luke's lightsaber every night and tinkered with trying to rebuild it.

 _You also need to build longer field energizers, or the energy channel is going to overheat._

Rey could almost feel Ben's breath on the back of her neck. Between his scrutiny and the advanced hour, she was becoming surly.

"Are you listening?"

Rey glanced up with annoyance at Finn. She shrugged indignantly. "What's the point? I don't understand a word they are saying. They don't need me—I'm just the closest thing they've got to a Jedi—I'm just . . ." Rey's words trailed off when she felt the bond between herself and Ben become taught.

 _A weapon_. The bitterness in his tone was unmistakable.

"A weapon," Rey agreed softly. She looked up from the remains of the shattered lightsaber and extended her consciousness so that she could see Ben. He was sitting with his elbows on his knees, his head propped between his hands. It was many hours past when they would both normally have retired, following the duty schedule aboard the dreadnaught, and he was clearly trying to stay awake so that he could speak to her when she was alone. Rey continued to speak distantly to Finn, and her voice creaked with regret. "They only need me because I'm the only person who can deal with Ben."

Ben's hands dropped between his knees, and he raised his head slowly to look at Rey. It had been a few days since she'd seen him, and his face was gaunt, his eyes sunken and shadowed.

 _Is that why you are rebuilding Skywalker's lightsaber?_

Rey looked down at the mechanical hodgepodge on the table. She'd had to guess how the mechanics of the saber worked, and Ben had been fairly silent, though he had watched her tinker with it several times.

 _It's all I have left._

 _Were you so fond of Skywalker?_

Rey turned the casing of the weapon over so that the dim lighting filtered through the synthetic crystal in the saber. _I feel like I'm drowning in the wake of the Force. The only time I feel like I'm in control is when I'm holding my lightsaber._

 _The only time you're holding your lightsaber is when it's pointed at me._ Ben snapped their connection shut angrily.

Rey stood abruptly and dumped the spare parts and fragments that she'd been piecing together back into the rusted tray she'd been using to tote around the lightsaber.

Finn looked up at her in surprise. "Where are you going? You need to be here for this!"

"No one here needs me."

Rey scooped up the tray and stormed from the room; blessedly, Finn didn't follow her. After several turns through the poorly lit underground bunker, she finally arrived at the cramped, dank closet that she'd claimed for her quarters. It was barely big enough to accommodate the bunk, a rickety metal chair, and the narrow counter that she'd been using as a workbench, but at least it was connected to a private lavatory and had the distinct advantage of being far removed from the quarters that had been used for the rest of the rebels. She was starting to wish she'd just stayed in her quarters on the Falcon like Chewie had done.

She slammed the bolt home on the door and tossed the tray onto the counter. Tiny screws and bits of wire flew everywhere. In frustration, she bent beneath the counter and started collecting the components, some tiny and precious, having been recovered from a broken cannon from one of the ancient x-wings that was rusting away in the bunker. She snatched up a particularly delicate circuit that had snapped in its tumble to the grimy stone floor in disgust, and slammed the back of her head on the counter as she started to stand.

"Damn it!"

Rey fell back to her knees, rubbing her head while tears of frustration and pain gathered in her eyes. Long warm fingers laid themselves over her crown and stroked her hair. In spite of her annoyance, his touch was soothing, and Rey leaned her head against his knee. She hadn't felt him release the barrier between them, but she was glad he had.

"What am I doing here? I don't know anything about rebellions or wars. All I know are machines, and I can't think with all this chattering in my head every waking minute!"

"You don't have to be there."

Rey blew the dirt of a slender circuit board she'd been hoping she could insert into a groove to run up through the energy channel. All the wires she'd tried had melted once the components had been connected and current was run though them. "What would I do on a dreadnaught? Repair droids and light fighters?"

Ben took a long slow breath. He tentatively wrapped a hand around the back of her neck and kneaded a knot in her neck with his thumb. "You could stand at my side and watch my back." Rey didn't answer, but she sighed in response to the pressure of his hand against her neck. "I can teach you to block out the minds around you . . . I could teach you the ways of the Force."

Rey quietly answered, "I don't want to be a Knight of Ren." She stroked a hand down Ben's shin in a conciliatory gesture so he would know she didn't say it out of spite or to insult him.

"I trained most of my life to be a Jedi. Neither of my masters thought I was adequate to make me a master. I'm not looking for a student. Maybe no one here needs you, but I do."

"Would you trust me with a lightsaber in my hand?"

Ben didn't answer for a long time, and Rey almost fell asleep with her temple pressed against his knee.

"I don't trust anyone else. Come."

Ben stood and drew Rey to her feet. She looked up at him with dread, not wanting to have the same conversation again so soon. "I can't leave them. I can't betray them."

Ben returned her gaze sadly. "I know. I just wanted . . . can I lay next to you until you are asleep?"

Rey allowed Ben to lead her to the narrow bunk, and she snuggled gratefully into his warmth. She felt her tension drain away, and the babble of the minds around them fade to a whisper. "What are you doing?"

"I'm pulling up a veil around us to block everyone else out."

 _Can you show me how?_

 _Not tonight._

Ben planted a chaste kiss into her hair. With peace finally descending within her and the comfort of Ben's presence around her, she sank quickly into a dreamless sleep.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Rey woke later than usual, but still rose before the rest of the Rebels. She found Ben's cloak wrapped around her, and his scent lingered on her skin. When she finally peeled herself out of the hard bunk, she found that her workbench had been cleared away, the pieces of the Skywalker lightsaber neatly arranged into its tray. Instead, a new saber laid waiting for her in the center of the counter.

 _Ben? Where did you get another lightsaber?_

 _I've always had it. I think you will find that it responds better to your touch than the Skywalker saber._

 _Why? Whose was it?_

 _It belonged to his master, Ben Kenobi._


	6. Chapter 6

Rey turned her back into the corner of the narrow room and ignited the saber. Ben was right; it did feel different. Rey twisted her wrist, swinging the blade in a narrow loop. There was something about the weight of the weapon or the length of the blade that somehow altered the way she was able to turn it in the air. The familiar hum of the saber oscillated at a different pitch, lower, sweeter, and she felt the difference in the bones of her hands and arms. A welcoming warmth spread from the weapon into her hand, and the lightsaber felt familiar, as though it was already hers.

 _It's a completely different weapon. It's far superior to the Skywalker saber—I can't believe you would part with it. Thank you._

 _I never liked it myself. I always felt resistance when I used it—as though the weapon itself was trying to hold me back._

Through the link, Ben's voice was brittle. When she stretched out her consciousness against his, the boundaries of his mind crackled with nervous energy. _What has happened?_

Ben slid a memory through their bond. He was a child, perhaps seven or eight, sitting in coarse slate blue sand beside the sea. The water washed in over his long feet and foam tickled against his ankles, but she could tell that the sea was starting to gather its rage. All around him there was hot, sticky silence, and she could feel sweat purl down his spine and gather at his temples. His hair had been shorn very close, and his scalp itched in the crushing humidity. The birds and beasts crouched in silence, and young Ben watched as the sun was blotted out.

 _Have you ever watched a storm riding in, and noticed the calm, how everything around you holds its breath?_

 _Yes._

 _Hux has been absolutely compliant. Polite to a fault. The perfect subordinate. Whatever he is planning to do, he is ready and he will make his move soon. There is something I'd like to show you._

Rey clipped the light saber to her belt and reached out for Ben. When she found him, he was seated but turned away from her.

 _Look through my eyes._

Rey steadied herself with hands on Ben's broad shoulders and pressed the side of her face to his. She felt something in his consciousness open, and when she followed the sensation, her vision shifted. Before her was an enormous curved screen that displayed an intricate star chart with hundreds of systems.

 _What is this?_

 _My dominion._

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Rey made her way down into the refectory, and was grateful to find Chewie already there. He eyed her curiously. Scanning the few other Rebels who were eating between duty shifts, she made her way between mismatched rickety chairs and dented tables.

Rey shrugged off the unspoken question in his eyes and leaned over the table. "If I needed to leave, if I needed to do something, would you take me?"

Chewie looked up at her and leveled a long, suspicious look at her before responding with a soft, reluctant affirmative.

Rey nodded her thanks. "Be ready."

Hoping to escape the refectory before having to interact with anyone else, she grabbed a ration pack out of a dusty box and walked directly into Finn's chest.

"Nice lightsaber. Where did you get it?"

Rey covered the saber with her hand and turned away. "You know where I got it."

Finn followed her out of the refectory, hissing in her ear, "Are you going to run, now? Is that it? Do you remember what happened the last time you went to him?"

Rey stopped in the middle of the passageway. "What do you want me to say? No one needs me here. Ben needs an uprising on Eurillis, and I'm going to give it to him."

"What do you mean _Ben_ needs an uprising on Eurillis?" Leia emerged from the war room of the bunker, blinking into the brighter illumination of the passageway.

Rey couldn't bear to look at Ben's mother, and hot shame scorched her skin. In the short time she had known Han, Rey had become deeply attached to him, and she felt a heavy burden of guilt that he had been lost. Han would never have been on Starkiller Base if Finn hadn't insisted on going there to rescue Rey with only the barest whisper of a plan. Now, she was inextricably bound to the man who had once been Leia's son and had murdered her husband.

Rey couldn't imagine how Leia had reconciled her grief over Han's death with the love she still bore in her heart for her son. Though she never asked, any word of her son was water in the wasteland. Rey bore further shame that she could reach out and touch Ben at any time, while mother ached to once again know her son.

Rey hung her head and spoke to the grimy floor. "Ben thinks Hux is actively gathering support to depose him. Hux is savage; his ambition knows no bounds. If he's allowed to run unchecked, what remains of the universe will be a bloodbath the likes we haven't seen. Executing him would only accelerate any plans he has set into motion or chase his accomplices into hiding, so . . ." Rey glanced up at Leia, who stood expectantly with arms crossed, lips pursed, and one brow raised.

"When the First Order seized control of systems that had been held by the Empire, they never stopped conquering long enough to set up local leadership. Some of the older systems have fallen off the First Order's radar. Even though requisitions are signed without question and supplies are regularly shipped to reinforce troops in the region, some of the soldiers have been stationed at the same base for decades without a visit from a First Order official."

Leia was clearly becoming impatient waiting for the punch line. "And?"

"No one is watching the sand blow. So long as there's no open rebellion and a system remains stable, there's no need for the First Order to look too closely. There's no resistance there because the First Order troops have gone native." Rey glanced up at Finn, and the first dawning realization had started to brighten his eyes. "Ben showed me . . . there's almost three dozen systems that are self-reliant but have little to no strategic value to the Order. If we could go to some of these systems and very quietly encourage the local population and troops to form alliances, we could quickly rebuild the Rebellion, encourage the Order to crumble from within—"

"And use their own troops, fleets, and resources to do it." Finn beamed at Rey. "That's brilliant!"

"If the Supreme Leader himself were to visit some of these systems, it would cause tremendous fear. . . . It could cause the troops that have been absorbed into the day to day life of the people they are meant to subdue to fracture. They could side with the native population and remove factions that are still loyal to the Order. If there was someone there to lead an insurrection and oppose him when he arrived . . ." Rey chewed her lip and glanced up at Leia.

Leia's eyes glittered menacingly, her face set like stone. "And you were just going to fly away without a word and go try to start an uprising? On your own. And make another public show of personally opposing the Supreme Leader?"

Leia glanced over her shoulder to ensure that the door to the war room was securely sealed before advancing on Rey. "Don't you think this is the kind of intelligence you should have reported to your commanding officer?"

For such a small woman, the general projected an enormous presence. Nonetheless, Rey ground her teeth together and glared at her defiantly. "It has to be me. It has to be us."

"Why? So he can take off with you again?"

Rey glanced angrily at Finn. "He's not going to take off with me."

"And just how does Ben think he's going to get Hux to go along with all this?" Leia demanded.

Rey swallowed. This was precisely why Rey didn't want to tell anyone what she was doing. "Hux is bent on complete dominion of the known universe, and he is particularly anxious to bring his home world beneath the heel of the First Order. Hux wants off his leash—he wants unrestricted freedom to command the First Order army as he sees fit." Rey glanced nervously between Leia and Finn and licked her lips nervously. "To keep him occupied, Ben's going to give him his greatest wish. He's going to turn Hux loose on Urobos Prime."

Finn and Leia burst simultaneously into outrage.

"What?"

"You can't be serious!"

Leia practically snarled, "Urobos Prime has been an ally to the Rebellion from the very start. They have supplied us with food, medical supplies, ships, weapons . . . when no one else would help us, they sheltered us! Countless millions will die! How—"

"And when the First Order had you cornered on Crait, they did nothing!" Rey roared. "Your message was received in dozens of systems, and they quivered in fear." She stepped closer to the general and leaned down into her face. "They conceded any pretense to opposing the Order. They left you to die."

"How do you know Kylo Ren won't leave you to die?"

Rey turned her head to glare at Finn, and her vision practically went red. Whatever Ben was doing, he had stopped, and she could feel his lips tighten and his chest heave. Both of their hands trembled, itching to draw their weapons.

"I won't leave _him_ to die. His days as Supreme Leader are numbered if he can't bring Hux to heel, and then we will have to deal with the full fury of a rabid monster without Ben there to stop him. Urobos Prime is the richest, most heavily armed free world in this galaxy. Now that Starkiller Base is out of commission, Hux could spend months or years trying to subdue it. Ben thinks Hux will have to draw down fleets from more stable systems to support an attack on Urobos Prime, making them vulnerable to insurrection.

"Our days are numbered if we can't find new, powerful friends with the will and resources to fight the First Order on its own terms. Yes, millions will be sacrificed, but dividing the Order against itself may be the only way we can loosen its grip."

Finn gaped at Rey in horror. "How can you justify condemning them to die?"

Rey shook her head. "They are going to die anyway. Ben knows Hux is bursting to tear the heart out of Urobos Prime. There's nothing we can do to save them. At least this way, we can take advantage of their sacrifice and make it mean something."

Finn turned to Leia. "Tell her. Tell her she can't do this! We've got to stop Ren! We have to stop Hux!"

Leia had listened to Rey rant in calculated silence, doing the math in her head, assessing the risk. "Why Eurillis? The population there is small, not particularly resource rich. Why does Ben want an uprising in Eurillis first?"

Rey glanced at Finn. She answered slowly, deliberately, "The civilian population is small, it's practically unarmed, . . . and it has the largest, most brutal First Order reeducation facility in the quadrant. It's bursting at the seams with well-trained soldiers that already have the will to oppose the First Order." Rey looked away, abashed. "I need to take Finn with me too."


	7. Chapter 7

Rey dropped into a low stance, elbow high and left hand drawn back over her temple. Her eyes were unfocused, and she quietly muttered a question. When she received the answer, she murmured, "Ah—that makes more sense." Holding the lightsaber in a reverse grip, she snapped up and swung the blade through an upstroke before turning and dropping into a low side stance.

"You should have just let me shoot her." Rey didn't need to hear Rose; she felt her loud and clear. From the corner of her eye, she just saw Rose watching her warily from where she leaned against the door frame as she continued moving through the form. Chewie had removed the furniture and crates that had crowded the room for decades, and now Rey had the freedom to swing the Kenobi blade through the intricate pattern of movements and step into the form with full extension. From time to time she would pause to consult an ancient hand-bound text laid out on a table.

Rey spread her hand across the page, careful to avoid touching the ancient ink. _What's this bit scrawled in swirly letters?_

With Ben's help, she had learned to construct a thin veil around her mind that would quiet the thoughts of most other souls to a whisper but would allow his thoughts alone to come through. The force bond seemed to be strengthening the more they used it, and she was becoming accustomed to the sensation of his thoughts humming beside hers. Most of his waking hours were spent tediously administering the First Order's domain, so his thoughts were usually a soft, comforting rumble at the back of her mind. Occasionally, he would reach out tentatively as though to check to see that she was still there, and when she wordlessly acknowledged him, she would get a warm impression of gratitude or affection in return. Rey had found herself speaking to him more and more often.

Ben's response was slow in coming, obviously trying to concentrate on something more important on his end. _Which book are you looking at again?_

 _The one bound in the weird yellow leather. What is it anyway? No matter how many times I try to wipe it clean, it always has an oily film to it._

 _That's the Hotu text. Stop trying to clean it. She bound it in the skin of a bird from her home world. The oiliness is intended and prevents the pages from drying out and becoming brittle. Does the form have a diagram next to it like a plant?_

Rey brought her face closer to the page and squinted. _I think so. It's hard to tell._

 _Lots of low stances?_

 _Mmm hmm._

Ben grunted softly in recognition. _It says, 'Draw your power from your foundation. Your strength comes from your roots.'_

 _Does it mean my feet, or does it mean my past?_

Ben hesitated before he answered, _Both_.

Rey felt tension through their bond. She was beginning to feel the difference between when Ben was stressed by something happening on the dreadnaught as opposed to when he was disturbed by something she had said or done. By the circuitous way it twisted between them, she knew that it was her this time. _Why did you tell me to start with Hotu?_

 _Hotu is the one I know the best . . . it was my favorite._ Rey received several brief impressions, and in each one, she saw Ben's hands holding the book, and each time, the light shimmered over larger hands. He had read it so many times that he had memorized most of it. _It's also one of the oldest texts, and I thought you would find it easier to understand._

 _Why?_

 _Hotu's writing is mystical. She saw no difference between the light and the dark, no need to separate them. She saw that the Force was, and she saw that it could be made to answer to her will_. Rey felt something shift in Ben, perhaps a squirm of embarrassment. _She accepted the dark where she found it, and she saw that it had value. You remind me of her_.

 _I can see the difference. I just can't see how they can be separated without being diminished._

 _Mmmm . . ._ He was clearly listening but distracted _._

Curiously, Rey asked, _What are you doing?_

Rey arced the blade back into a block as she stepped back from the table and began the next part of the form.

 _I'm trying to familiarize myself with systems I haven't visited. I get regular dispatches from throughout the galaxy, and I'm trying to make sense of them._

Rey drew her brows down in concern. _Are there still uprisings?_

 _No. Crait was the last for now. Even when the Rebellion was at its height, their activity probably only constituted a small portion of the dispatches. They inform me of everything from natural disasters to troop casualties to the outcome of elections on systems the First Order has yet to absorb._

Rey bent back, sliding into an awkward stance and passing the blade close over her face _. I'd have thought the Supreme Leader spent all his time on battle strategies._

 _I'm sorry to disappoint._

Rey swung her blade past her body in a slashing movement. She smiled at the irony in his tone. _I just didn't think your time would be absorbed by such trivial matters_.

Rey felt Ben arch his spine over the back of his chair as he stretched the tension out of muscles stiff from hours of inactivity. _I shouldn't have to. General Hux used to read all the dispatches and inform Snoke of the ones he considered worthy of his attention. I don't trust him to give me the same courtesy, so I've instructed that all dispatches are to come to me before they go to Hux_. Ben sighed in frustration. _There's hundreds every day_.

 _How did Hux manage it?_

 _Blind ambition and righteous fervor are powerful motivators._ Rey felt the pressure of Ben's scrutiny and what might have been the crinkling of his nose in distaste _. That stance isn't quite right._

Ben had risen from his chair and Rey could feel him moving through the stances and strikes of her form with her.

 _What did you do before you were the Supreme Leader?_

Ben stopped abruptly, and Rey felt a mixture of anger tinged with dark amusement flood the bond. _Aside from kidnapping civilians and burning villages?_

Rey's unfocused eyes widened, and she could tell from the edge in his voice that she had crossed an unspoken line. Perhaps because their bond was so immediate, they rarely spoke of the past, as though there had been nothing at all between them before the force bond, before the throne room. Rey sank to the floor and pushed the bond wider so that she could see him.

Unless she looked directly through his eyes, she usually couldn't glimpse his surroundings, but she assumed that he was in his quarters. He looked at her as though betrayed. _Ben, that's not what I meant_. Rey had recalled the plasma blade of her weapon, and she watched her fingers turn the saber over in her hands. _I just wondered what . . . else . . . your duties entailed_.

 _What else? Unfortunately, slaughtering the defenseless and running petty but dangerous errands seemed to be all Snoke thought I was fit for. I now see that he rarely entrusted me with command unless he needed something smashed_. Ben's eyes looked dead. _A monster after all—even he knew it_. Ben turned and pinched the bond shut.

"Ben, no! Wait!"

"Rey? Rey!"

Rey only distantly registered Finn's voice as she threw herself against the walls in Ben's mind. This time, she wasn't going to be deterred. She reached into the bond with the entirety of her will, and she ran after him, and after a few steps, she slammed into the wall he had erected between them. She took a step back on the grimy floor of the Falcon and leaped into the bond, roaring with rage . . . and both feet landed in the spotless, shining black passageway of the dreadnaught.


	8. Chapter 8

This can't be his quarters. Rey looked around in panic, realizing that she had anchored onto him so firmly that she may have truly travelled to him. Within seconds, she saw him striding away from her down the corridor, and she could tell even from several yards away that anger was starting to simmer within him.

 _Ben!_ He pushed her hail away in his mind. Rey took a breath, and as loud as she dared, yelled after him, "Ben!"

Ben stopped abruptly and turned. When he saw her, all color drained from his face. He ignited his light saber and charged back down the corridor towards her, glancing wildly down the two bisecting corridors he passed. Rey was so stunned that he had turned on her and was charging back down the corridor with weapon raised, it took her several seconds before she even tried to draw her own weapon. By the time her clumsy fingers fumbled towards her saber, it was far too late.

Ben bodily slammed into Ray, and he grabbed her with his free arm, dragging her along the passage. "What are you doing here? Do you know what will happen if you are seen?"

Rey allowed Ben to drag her back into the confines of his dark quarters, and he leaned against his door once he'd deadlocked it behind him. Ben recalled the plasma blade and gestured angrily with the quieted saber. "How are you here? Can you even still feel the Falcon around you?"

Rey tried to pull her consciousness back from the dreadnaught, and felt the Falcon vibrating just at the very edge of her consciousness, as though if she were to only lift her toe, it would be gone, and this would be her new reality. Rey's eyes widened, and as she felt around the edges of the bond with her mind, she realized that she had forced herself almost entirely into Ben's side of their link.

"It's there. It's weak, but it's there."

"Can you go back?"

Rey eased her consciousness back along the path of the bond, and as she did, Rose's voice became strident.

"She's gone! He took her!"

"Rey!" Rey reached out and was able to feel Finn close to her, his heart beating out of his chest. As though from a very great distance, she saw Finn clamp his mouth in anger and his eyes glittered with sudden anger. "He damn well better not have. Rey!"

Rey slithered further back, and she was surprised to hear Rose sigh with relief. "She's coming back. We've got her."

Rey halted and stood her ground. "Are you alright?"

Ben's eyes widened in disbelief. "No! How were you able to break through? I would have come back—I was just angry."

Rey shrugged. "I jumped."

Ben swallowed his fear and anger with difficulty, and after a few deep breaths, he took Rey into his arms. Rey dimly heard a gasp of shock from the Falcon, but she ignored it. He tipped her chin up and spoke softly but firmly. "Don't jump again. You don't have the control to try projecting or travelling yet. If you had made it all the way across, I'm not sure I could have put you back. Please," Ben cupped her face, "stay. I'll always come back." Ben kissed her gently, but firmly pushed her consciousness away through the bond.

 _Are you back?_

Even before she opened her eyes, she could feel the Falcon's hyperdrive humming through her boots and smell its familiar scent. Rey bit her bottom lip, and she could almost taste Ben's kiss. She nodded silently. _Forgive me—I know that Kylo Ren and Ben Solo aren't the same. I didn't mean to imply . ._.

Ben retreated further down the bond, though she felt his presence clearly in her mind. _I was never proud of what I had to do to try to please Snoke. Skywalker believed that I was lost to the darkness, but it took Snoke's cruelty to make me believe it too. He cultivated it. He taught me to fight against the call of the light, but I never had the kind of hate that is needed to truly answer the call of the Dark Side._

 _What is done is done—I can't take it back. You will have to accept the atrocities that I committed are part of who I am_. Rey felt Ben searching her memories for something, and he drew out her perspective of the murder of Han Solo. He felt how it pierced her, and she felt his regret. _Can you forgive me for what is done?_

Rey sighed in resignation. She extracted from his mind Han Solo's last moments, and the touch of a loving father upon the cheek of a lost son, and they felt together the sorrow, regret, and longing that had been his last moments with his child. _If he could forgive you, how could I not?_

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

When Rey had completely returned to her place in the Falcon, she blinked bleary eyes and found the Falcon's entire crew ranged before her in varying states of wary mistrust, fear, anger, and disappointment.

Finn's mouth was pinched, and he practically vibrated. "What happened? One minute you're here practicing your Jedi thing, and the next you're gone."

"We were talking—"

"You were talking with Kylo Ren." Rose's disgust smoldered in her eyes.

Rey took a deep breath. "Yes. We were talking, and I asked him what his duties had been under Snoke—" Eyebrows shot up in surprise all around, and Chewie murmured in disbelief. "—and he was angry that I had brought up the things he had been made to do."

"Which were horrendous . . ." Finn murmured under his breath.

Rey inclined her head in acknowledgement, but continued, "He was furious and shut me out, so I went after him." She glanced up, ashamed. "I just went further than I had anticipated."

"We saw him." Rose nodded towards the center of the room. "We heard what he said. We saw you kiss him. Obviously the two of you are on the same side—which side is that exactly?"

Rey searched her feelings, and she felt Ben's thought shift uncomfortably beside her own, though he was unusually quiet. "It's starting to feel like we are on our own side, and the Rebellion and the Order are both gunning for us. I think Ben's right, that the Rebellion will never be strong enough to bring down the First Order. I think Ben agrees that the First Order's reign of terror must stop. I know no one wants to hear this, but we are going to have to find a middle path."

Rose shook her head. "So that's it? We just give up and let the two of you reign victorious over the galaxy?" She glanced at Finn in disbelief. "I knew we couldn't trust you."

Rey reached out a hand for Rose, but let it fall when she recoiled from her. "I want the same things you do."

Rose sneered. "Maybe, but I'm not sure you will be able to find them at Kylo Ren's side."


	9. Chapter 9

"How can you possibly expect us to trust you? How do we know you aren't leading us into another one of Ren's traps?"

Tears filled Rey's eyes and threatened to overflow. She pressed her fingers to her eyes to blot them away before they fell, refusing to let them see her cry. "I spent my whole life trying to scrape my next meal from the bones of the Empire's defeat beneath the heel of the First Order. I was sold off for pocket money and abandoned. In my entire life, the only people who ever gave a damn whether I lived or died were Finn, Chewbacca, Han Solo . . . and Kylo Ren. They all risked their lives for me, and if you think for a moment that I would knowingly let any of them—" Rey glanced defiantly at Finn, "—any of them come to harm, you can't imagine what it means to be alone like that.

She turned imploringly to Finn. "I'd never trade your life for his. You have to believe I'd never have asked you to come if I thought he would betray us."

Finn glanced between Rose and Rey uncomfortably. "I don't trust Ren. I didn't even work anywhere close to command, and I still saw enough of his rage to know he was unstable and dangerous. I trust you, though. I don't understand this thing between the two of you, but I believe you won't abandon me." Finn stepped closer and took Rey's hands in his own. "You begged me on Takodana to stay with you. If we had been together, maybe Kylo Ren wouldn't have taken you that day. Maybe we wouldn't have ended up on Starkiller Base, and maybe Solo would be here with us now. Maybe we are going to have to work a little harder at trusting one another, because our friends are dying and we are running out of allies." He glanced at Rose. "Alright?"

Rose nodded curtly and she turned away sullenly. Finn glanced at Rey again and squeezed her hand. "He's volatile. You can't let his emotions control you, or you are going to get us all killed."

Rey stood by Chewie and watched as Finn jogged down the corridor to catch up with Rose. "Was Ben always like this?"

Chewie vocalized sadly and shook his head. She followed him back to the cockpit, and started readying the ship to drop out of light speed. She'd lost her taste for the Jedi arts for the day.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Once they were on the surface of Eurillis, it took very little time to see what happened to a First Order outpost when it fell into neglect. Since much of the planet was cordoned off, there was only one large town, Obachi, that was large enough to boast a port. From the port, one dusty road led back to the town proper, and the paved road led to the First Order reeducation facility.

Although it made Finn break out into a cold sweat every time he considered it, Ben had suggested that Finn remained on the Falcon until he arrived and could introduce him into the reeducation facility as a new officer. Wookies were almost unheard of in this part of space, so they decided that it was best that Rose and Rey would explore the town. No one was pleased by the arrangement, but in the spirit of cooperation, Rose grudgingly agreed to accompany Rey.

Growing up on Jakku, Rey had assumed that endemic poverty was a symptom of living on a planet with so few natural resources. Eurillis was rich with lush plant life, including enormous hardwood trees, many too thick to wrap her arms around, but all of them were secured behind barricades and electrified fences. She craned her neck to see what she could between the panels of the barricades, and she imagined that the forests concealed abundant wildlife that, along with the many edibles the townsfolk should be able to forage, ought to have provided for more than adequate sustenance. Instead, everywhere she looked, she saw gaunt faces and wide staring eyes.

As they followed the dusty tract into the town, Rey and Rose passed several children too hungry and listless to move. They simply sat in the shade of the great trees, leaning against the graffitied barricades and watching the strangers pass from empty eyes. Even on Jakku, children were never too hungry to hound strangers for a spare penny.

The town itself was comprised of ramshackle wooden buildings of ancient construction. With logging apparently banned, she noticed all manner of modifications to the buildings using salvaged First Order equipment: storm trooper armor hammered into flat sheets and bolted together for roofing, the discarded side panel from an AT-AT was being used by two young women as a sledge to haul sacks of grain behind a giant six-legged lizard, and even the wing of a TIE fighter had been repurposed into a satellite grid. Aside from the salvaged First Order equipment, everything in sight was decades old.

 _Ben, are you seeing this?_ Rey felt Ben's consciousness prickle acutely against her eyes, and she knew he looked with her. She felt him look attentively, but he said nothing. She'd been so few places that she had little to compare this to, but his lack of comment surprised her. Curiously, she asked, _Is it like this on all First Order planets?_

When Ben refused to answer, she queried Rose instead. "Rose, what was it like on your homeworld?"

Rose looked up in surprise. "Most of us lived in brutal camps owned by the mining cartels and buried under decades of squalor. A handful of the very wealthy had struck bargains with the First Order to work even the young children like slaves for twelve or more hours underground extracting ore. If you were lucky enough to live near a smelting plant and could get trained to work there, much nicer houses were provided for those families, but men didn't last long. The work was dangerous, and it wasn't unheard of for a woman to have five or six husbands in her brief life. The best jobs were to be had at the armament factories.

"You'd be surprised how many families traded off young boys to the First Order for an extra annual ration stamp. I imagine that's how Finn came to be a storm trooper. He was probably traded away for a year's supply of cooking oil and flour or extra weekly water rations."

"It's no wonder storm troopers are so easy to indoctrinate." Rey thought of the many small empty bellies on Jakku and the things she had had to do to find her next meal as a child. "The First Order carries children away from poverty and squalor and gives them an education, training, and adequate rations." Rey shook her head sadly. "I didn't realize that it is like this everywhere."

 _This is how the business of conquest is conducted._

Rey lashed back at Ben angrily. _That doesn't make it right._

 _I didn't say it was right. I said it was business. The First Order's strength is based on taking everything and leaving the systems it has conquered too weak to fight back. I've never seen a system where poverty and enslavement isn't the norm._

 _I can easily improve these people's lives, but it will arouse suspicion within the First Order. This will have to be done slowly, quietly. If we were to liberate them all at once, it would create a ripple effect. I guarantee I wouldn't be the Supreme Leader for long. You need to find out their most immediate need. A small concession I can give them that will make a difference without arousing the suspicions of those in the barracks that are loyal to the First Order._

"Agreed."

Rose looked suspiciously over at Rey. "What did you just agree to?"

Rey stopped at a dry trough below a moisture sail and glanced around the dead town. "Ben needs us to find something to offer these people. Something that will have impact but will not arouse suspicion."

"When is he coming?"

When Rey relayed the question, she felt Ben's uncertainty as he considered. She felt his hesitation in leaving Hux to his own devices and regret that he could not interfere with the planned invasion of Urobos Prime without setting off a mutiny within his own ranks. _Three standard days._

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Rey and Rose wandered through the town. There were few businesses, mostly junk traders selling off used Order equipment and clothing and a brothel where desperate women offered their custom in exchange for extra ration packs to feed their children. They turned into a nearly empty tavern that sold some kind of fermented milk and wafers of thin black bread spread with a salty paste made from ground beans and cooking oil.

Looking through the clouded panes of filthy glass in the window, Rey was surprised how many children seemed to be around the town. She had seen very few men, and most of those advanced in age. The children in the town proper seemed to be much livelier, notably those that were dressed in all black. Rey watched them curiously. "I wonder why the healthier children are dressed in all black. I don't get it."

Rose snorted. "I do." She jutted her chin at a girl squatting in the street and digging in the earth with a stick. "Finn still sometimes wears the set of clothes he had on under his armor when he escaped the First Order, and it's made from the same fabric. The girl's tunic was probably made from one of her father's old shirts."

Rey scanned the street, and counted at least a dozen children dressed in all black, realization dawning. "There's no men because they are still on duty at the reeducation center. What about the poorer children?"

Rose raised her eyebrows. "Don't men disappear on Jakku?" The comment stung, but Rey bit back her retort as Rose continued, "They are likely the children of men who have been shipped out of the reeducation center. They're on their own now."

 _Ben?_ Rey felt an interrogatory hum through the bond. _When will the next duty shift change happen?_

After a pause, he responded, _In about two hours_.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"Who are you?"

Rey looked up to find a fierce woman with ebony skin towering over her. A band of hammered and polished steel hung around her neck and reflected the late afternoon sun, and her clothes were made of narrow strips of a coarse homespun woolen material, stitched together. Rey and Rose felt that they were attracting too much attention in the tavern, and after choking down a couple of beakers of the thick fermented milk and a plate of the dry bread, they seated themselves in the shade between two boarded up shop fronts at the edge of town to see what happened when the shift change happened at the reeducation center.

Rey calmed her mind and projected her thoughts towards the woman. "We're just passing through. Pay us no mind."

The woman's face clenched and she twitched her head. She narrowed her eyes and answered slowly, "I don't think so. It was a good try, though, girl. Are you slavers? I already told Tambisi that I would kill the next man who came here to try to buy girls." The woman stepped closer and snapped her finger out. Rey was surprised when the Force slammed her back against the peeling wall. "I'm not above killing you either."

Rey smiled darkly, and she felt her powers stir. She pressed back against the woman's powers and allowed the pressure to sizzle slightly between them, just enough for her to sense the raw potential that she commanded. At the back of her mind, Rey felt Ben's awareness snap to her, and she could feel his own power surge in response.

 _What's happening?_ His concern came out as a sharp bark.

 _I'm making friends with the locals. It's fine._ Ben's consciousness receded reluctantly, and Rey felt that the barrier between them was paper thin.

Glancing between the two women, obviously locked in a battle of wills, Rose spoke up, "We're with the Resistance." She glanced at Rey, and Rey nodded for her to continue. "We received some intelligence that on Eurillis, some of the First Order troops had gone native. We wanted to see for ourselves."

Rey lifted her brows in surprise. They hadn't really discussed what their story would be on the way into town, and she hadn't planned on being so forthright. Rose glanced back at Rey and shrugged.

"Native. That's an interesting word for it." She withdrew her power from Rey reluctantly, but narrowed her eyes in unmistakable warning: Don't try it. She considered them for a few moments, obviously trying to decide what to do with them, and then jerked her head. "Follow me, and we will see just what you are."

Rey stood and began following her. "What's your name?"

"I am Teeta." She glanced back at Rose and Rey with narrowed eyes. "I am the garrison commander's wife."


	10. Chapter 10

Rey and Rose followed Teeta through the town to a group of domed huts on the edge of town. When Rey looked carefully through the gathering dusk, she could see that there was a dirt path that led away from the huts in the direction of the reeducation center. The huts themselves were large enough to accommodate several rooms and possibly could have fit more than one family. Like the roofs of some of the buildings in Obachi, they were constructed of panels of storm trooper armor that had been hammered out and bolted together before being covered with dried brush and thatch that likely disguised their existence from the air.

As they passed through the settlement, several women stepped aside for Teeta and bowed low, even the children kneeling in reverence. Each time Teeta paused and murmured to them in a tongue Rey didn't know and she caressed their heads, hands, or faces in blessing.

"Are you these people's leader?"

Teeta glanced at Rey and chuffed dismissively. "No. I am their guardian and their priestess. The First Order comes and takes away our land, our children, our men, and our hope. I make sure they don't take away our faith."

Teeta flipped back the door to one of the domed huts and motioned Rey inside. Something at the edge of her awareness had begun to sizzle, but she felt the Force urging her to continue along her path. With a puzzled glance at Rose, Rey stepped into the waiting darkness and was immediately dragged into the center of a single enormous room and suspended in mid-air.

Rey's first impulse was to attack, and she fought against the many minds that buffeted her as she reached for her light saber.

Wherever he was, Rey felt Ben stand abruptly. _Are you under attack?_

Rey froze. Am I under attack? _No_ . . . Rey stretched out her feelings, and she sensed many minds banded together in fear, but beneath the fear there was a thread of curiosity and even hope rather than overt aggression. Rey breathed in deeply, inhaling their fear, and when she exhaled, she extended her feelings, trying to convey peace and calm. At first, her thoughts met strong opposition, but as she continued breathing, she felt first one, and then another of the minds trembling in fear breathe in with her, and her peace filled their hearts. Rey continued breathing, and within minutes, she realized that every mind in the hut had been attuned so that it vibrated in time to her own. Heart rates had slowed, and when she extended her feelings further, she realized that every heart beat in time to her own, every chest expanded with her breath. Rey extended her hands and slowly, one by one, other hands were raised in response. Thin ribbons of light, at first weak and tremulous, began to link the palms. Soon, Rey hovered in the center of a web of light.

Teeta's voice spoke into the thick silence. "Well met, Rey of Jakku. Our sisterhood welcomes you into our midst in peace."

The women released the web of light, and Rey was allowed to settle into a seated position at the center of the circle of women. Teeta called out, "Issaa. Tell us what is in Rey of Jakku's heart."

A painfully thin blonde girl appearing to be seven or eight with long matted braids and ageless eyes surrounded by incongruous wrinkles and set deep in her skull stepped forward. She sat down into Rey's folded legs and laid a soft, wrinkled hand with short, stubby fingers on Rey's cheek. She felt as though a needle had pressed through her heart, a thread drawn between the ancient girl and herself. Rey heard Issaa's voice in her mind, and it creaked as though it had felt thousands of minds before hers. _Do not be afraid, Rey-Okan_. "Rey of Jakku comes on the wings of war. She is searching in deep roots for sleeping seeds. Her beloved comes like rain. He has walked between rivers of blood, but the sun will rise from his footsteps. Many will be nourished by fruit from the twining boughs." Issaa laid her other palm against Rey's cheek, and she turned Rey's face so that they were nose to nose. _You are still afraid of him, Rey-Okan. Your doubts are burning stones. Lay them down. Two hearts sustain one soul. When the stars are blotted out and the earth burns, he will be a brilliant light_. _Trust him_.

Issaa planted a gentle kiss on Rey's nose, and then went limp. Rey clutched the girl's frail body and looked up in speechless panic. One of the women came forward and scooped the girl out of Rey's arms with a smile.

"Do not worry, Rey-Okan. Issaa will sleep for a day, perhaps two, and will awake refreshed. She is our oracle, and after the Force speaks through her, she must rest."

Rey watched as some of the women detached themselves in Issaa's wake and began ministering to her at a pallet in the flickering shadows. Distantly, Rey asked, "Why did she call me Rey-Okan?"

"Issaa can see into the future and into the past. Souls whisper a person's true name to her, even if you cannot hear it yourself. You were born Rey-Okan, even if you do not know it." Her lips parted in a slow smile. "It will not be your name for much longer, though."

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Rey and Rose were kept cloistered with the Sisters and learned much of life on Eurillis. They saw that through the starvation and suffering, it was the women's deep pervading belief in the Force that bound them together and gave them the strength to survive. Although they could not explain it, the daughters of the Sisters were all gifted with the Force, and in the stifling heat of the training hut, the girls practiced in community around the fire. Rey had studied the girls, in awe of their mastery; Rose had watched entranced and thoroughly enjoyed the magical interplay between the women and girls.

On the second night, Teeta asked the girls to show Rose and Rey the first form they learned in their training. Between her hands, a girl of four summers had suspended a seed. She screwed up her face, and a moment later, the seed sprouted. She beamed with pride before lifting the seed to her mouth. She blew over it, and the sprout turned into a stalk as it sailed into the waiting outstretched hands of another girl. This girl, her face surrounded by a riot of red hair, received it in the space between inverted hands, her fingers pointed at the ground, and it hovered between the backs of her hands. She brought her hands up, twisted them, and flicked her fingers out. As she did so, leaves emerged from the seed. With a deep scooping motion, she swept the seed up towards her ear, and made a hard gesture like a downward strike, and roots spiraled from the seed.

Teeta laughed. "Tuuva, not so hard, child! Never forget, your strength comes from your roots. They are the foundation of your power, and you must build them with care. Pass it on to Urulai. Oh!" Tuuva had pushed the seed so forcefully that Urulai nearly dropped it. When Urulai, a dark-skinned girl of seven or eight with long braids bound with thin bands of beaten steel, recovered the seed before it fell into the fire, Teeta smiled. "Well done. Continue."

 _Your strength comes from your roots_. Rey watched more carefully as she recognized familiar gestures. _Ben! Ben! Watch!_

Ben had missed Urulai's elegant gesture that had caused the stem to burst into bloom, but by the time the plant was passed to Issaa, she felt his consciousness prickle behind her eyes. Issaa stepped forward, and the other girls tittered with excitement; apparently Issaa was going to do something special.

Issaa dropped into a low stance, her feet spread far apart, and she swayed her body low between them, one leg with full extension and toes pointed away, her elbow high with the left hand drawn back over her temple. She reached far back behind her with the right hand, and the bloom quivered on its stalk. She rose slowly, gracefully on her right foot, raising the back of her hand far over her head. As she rose, she drew her left foot up the length of her leg so that her heel rested high inside her thigh. As the girl drew herself ever higher, even up onto her toes, the stalk lengthened and the flower faded, the petals falling away onto the woven mats spread across the floor of the hut.

Issaa hovered in this stance, her raised hand and the foot supporting her trembling, and the stamen of the flower thickened. In its place, a heavy striped red fruit slowly grew until the stalk was nearly bowed with its weight. Issaa's skin gleamed with perspiration as she concentrated. She dropped her left hand down, in what hundreds of years of Jedi had misinterpreted as a block, to capture the fruit as it fell from the stalk.

Rey could barely contain her excitement, and Ben's disbelief fizzed through their bond. _Is that . . ._

 _Yes!_

 _I think that's the—_

 _I know!_

Issaa stepped back into a low side stance, and passed her right hand back over her face. As she did so, the leaves gracefully folded up around the stalk. Issaa brought her hands together and slowly cut the air before her, and as she did so, the stalk diminished and slid back into the seed. At the same time, Issaa twisted her wrist and fluttered her fingers, and the roots withdrew their tendrils back into the seed.

Across the fire, Tuuva sighed in admiration, and Rey could just hear her murmur wistfully, "That's always where I get stuck," before she was shushed by the girls on either side of her.

Issaa brought her fingertips together over the seed, and as she arced them away over the sides of the seed, the delicate skin of the seed healed itself. She lifted her fingers nearly to her lips, and blew upon the seed. The seed sailed over the fire, slowly turning, and it came to hover before Rey. Rey held out her hand, and the seed dropped into her palm.

Teeta smiled warmly at Rey. "Be that a lesson to you, Rey. Man's arm may be powerful strong, but a woman's memory is longer. For generations, Hotu taught that the Force was the essence of life itself . . . The inception of life the greatest power of all, and the release into death was to return to a mother's arms. It was man who envied Hotu's power and saw that it could be turned into a weapon."

Teeta flicked her eyes over Rey's shoulder, and Rey realized that while focusing upon Issaa's demonstration of the Hotu form, Ben had unknowingly allowed himself to slip through their bond, and his body pressed against her back, his arms framing her body with hands splayed on the ground, and his cheek a hair's breadth from her own. When Teeta's eyes locked on his, he realized his mistake, and when he trembled, Rey felt the tension of his body reverberate through hers. Rose turned her head and was horrorstruck when she perceived Ben crouched behind Rey. Teeta's smile broadened, and she continued, "I know you can feel it, young master, the way the Force flows through you, calling you to life, rather than to death." Ben drew in a deep breath, and Teeta lifted her chin knowingly. "We await your arrival with great eagerness."

Rey looked up at Ben. He glanced at her for only a moment before nodding solemnly at Teeta and slipping back through their bond. As he went, Rey felt his whispered, _Thank you_.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

The next day, Rey and Rose were left sleeping late into the day in the hut Teeta used for training the children. After the midday meal, Teeta took Rey and Rose to the top of a rickety tower from where they could see the entirety of Obachi, including the space port, where the Falcon was the lone craft, and even as far as the First Order reeducation facility.

"You said you had heard the First Order troops had 'gone native'." Amusement tinged Teeta's voice. "Would you like to see what that looks like?"

Rey and Rose had seated themselves at the top of the tower platform, and shielded their eyes from the afternoon sun. Knowing that he was en route and his shuttle was probably on autopilot, Rey summoned Ben so that he could watch with them.

Rey noticed that the children of the encampment, all dressed in black, had gathered at the edge of the settlement, and the youngest of them had turned their faces towards the First Order installation, hopping from foot to foot in anticipation. Within minutes, they could see dozens of storm troopers trudging down the packed dirt path between the facility and the encampment, some carrying their helmets beneath their arms, others shedding the armor as they walked. Several of them carried crates of provisions between them.

Rey watched in particular the little girl in the black tunic who she and Rose had noticed digging in the street. She clung to her brother's hand and looked up at him in expectation while they waited along the edge of the encampment. Finally, the brother's hand shot out and both of the children's faces lit up. The girl tore down the path, and one of the storm troopers knelt in the dried grass, pulled off his helmet, and scooped her into his arms when she threw herself into them. The girl squealed with delight when the trooper handed her his helmet. As he hoisted her onto his shoulders for the rest of the walk into the encampment, she popped the helmet onto her head and drummed happily on her father's shorn golden locks. When father and daughter had nearly made their way back to the edge of the encampment, the boy rocketed down the last few yards of the path and launched himself at the trooper, nearly toppling him.

Rey realized that her cheeks were wet. _So that is what it means to have a family_.

Rey felt a bitter squirming within Ben's feelings, something between longing and regret. _It is when you are wanted._

Rey extended sympathy through their bond, but Ben made no further comment as they watched the storm troopers continue to pour down the path seeking their families.

Rey turned to Teeta. "Was it always like this? Once the First Order's attention was turned towards other parts of the galaxy, did the people of Obachi and the troops in the installation comingle immediately?"

Teeta shook her head, now scanning the straggling few troopers for her own husband. "No. It took perhaps eight or ten years during which the First Order ignored the rest of the population for the most part except at harvest. Then, there was an enormous earthquake and a tsunami that washed over the base. The troops had to evacuate their base until the flood waters receded and the base could be cleaned and restored to working order. They had nowhere else to go but into Obachi, where they were forced to live for a few months with our people."

 _No wonder Hux is always in a state of panic every time there is a natural disaster. It makes his precious army susceptible to desertion and increases the likelihood of mutinies._

One of the troopers, clearly differentiated from his comrades by a broad red epaulet across one shoulder, lifted his hand high. Teeta smiled broadly and answered his wave. "It was my husband, Socar, who saw that we suffered. That the children starved and we struggled to meet the production quotas the First Order demanded. He began diverting supplies to the town, and when children became old enough to be conscripted to the First Order, he put them with their mothers on shuttles to send them to colonies in the Outer Rim where they could find work. When his own men threatened open rebellion if they were banned from Obachi, he simply stopped locking the gates that led out of the base and electrifying the fence. So long as we stayed far removed from the base so that we were not caught should the First Order have a surprise inspection, he saw no harm in allowing his men to integrate into the general population."

 _What happened to the men who were sent to the base for reeducation?_

When Rey repeated Ben's question to Teeta, she smiled slyly. "It depended upon who arrived, and what their offenses were. He's very good with computer systems, my Socar." She fluttered her fingers in a dismissive gesture. "Many of them, he simply made disappear, and he sent them to the farming camps in other parts of Eurillis. This made it easier to meet the First Order agricultural quotas. Others he claimed died in brutal reeducation exercises, so over time Eurillis became a name feared by the First Order, a threat that was not given lightly." Rey registered that Ben was darkly amused and impressed by Socar's ingenuity.

"Sometimes, though, men arrived who had been sent here out of spite or jealousy, and were anxious to complete their sentence so they could be redeployed as soon as possible back to their units. Socar pushed these men quickly through reeducation and got them onto the next shuttle off Eurillis." Teeta shifted uncomfortably as she continued, "A few times, some of these men discovered that Eurillis had become a haven for First Order dissidents, and to protect the men and families he was harboring, Socar had to have these men put to death."

"What of the women and children starving in the street?" Rose demanded, "Why have they not been brought under your protection?"

Teeta's mouth tightened. "There have been some men who have tried to deceive Socar. Seeking their own glory, they tried to slip away on a freighter or send word to the First Order of what happens on Eurillis. Those men," Teeta's eyes were hard, and she nodded solemnly, "those men died very bad deaths. We let their women and children starve that others may remember that if they betray Socar, there will be no mercy. It is hard, but it is our way."

Teeta turned grimly to Rey and Rose. "Tonight and tomorrow, you will be my honored guests, but you will not leave our training hut until our men have returned to duty. They live in constant fear that their treachery will be discovered. The next day, you will go." Teeta stepped closer. "I do not know if we can help your Rebellion, but if we could find but a toehold, we would fight the First Order until our last breath."

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

On the last night before Ben's expected arrival, Teeta gathered the women and children into a circle late into the night around a roaring fire. She raised her arms and waited. Within moments, a great hissing monstrosity, whose massive shoulders rose several feet over Rey's head and rippled beneath sleek black fur amongst rows of erect iron grey plates, loped into the encampment. It raised an oversized head and sniffed through a broad, blunt nose, flattening a row of what Rey assumed were ears that ran from the back of its head down the length of its sinuous neck. It prowled around the inside of the circle on four powerful legs that terminated in claws that sank easily into the packed, rocky earth, and though the children shrank and moaned softly in fear behind their mothers, the women stood fast, watching what the beast would do.

Finally, it spotted Rey, and it padded across the circle to her. Rey's body tensed, and her heart raced. She forced herself to breathe slowly and opened her consciousness to the beast, looking deep into its glazed orange eyes, the pupils dilated wide in the thick darkness. He brought his nose close to Rey's and she could smell the musk of his fur. His tail twitched for a few moments, and from the corner of her eye she could see that the rows of plate that ran over the creature's shoulders and back descended even to the very tip of its tail, where they glinted dully in the light of the fire.

Rose's hand had closed around Rey's and was gripping it so tightly that her fingers were going numb. Rey released Rose's hand and reached her hands out. Rey could feel the Force pouring powerfully from the creature, neither light nor dark, simply visceral power, ebbing and flowing with each of its breaths. As the creature's power washed over her, Rey breathed it in, and time slowed. She was unsure if the creature was corporeal or simply a manifestation of the Force, come to judge her worthiness. Slowly, Rey placed her trembling hands beneath the creature's jaws and thought, _I submit_.

The beast bowed its head and laid down at Rey's feet. It closed its eyes, and an exquisite shiver ran the length of the creature. It took a deep breath, and Rey felt its life flow away and dissolve into the cool night.

Rey exchanged a wide-eyed look with Rose, who stood pale and sweating beside her. Rose whispered, "Did you feel—"

Teeta answered, "In times of turmoil, the Force sends us a sign. Tonight, it has sent us a slink, and he has surrendered his body for our nourishment."

Rose, awed and shaken from the many surreal things she had seen in the huts of the Sisters over the past few days, squeaked, "Why?"

Teeta nodded towards Rey. "So that we have the strength to do what is asked of us."


	11. Chapter 11

The next morning, Rose and Rey were roused early by many voices yelling and feet pounding through the hard ground. Teeta threw open the door to the training hut. Her eyes were wild as she searched the darkness for Rey.

"Lying vermin!" Teeta sent a blast at Rey that forced pinned her against the side of the hut. "You must be very powerful to deceive Issaa. You said you were sent by the Resistance!"

Rey pushed back against Teeta's wild, writhing power with great difficulty. It wasn't a single focused surge of power like Ben's. It swirled away from her own, buffeting it from odd angles, sinuous and slippery in its texture. "We . . . were! We are looking for ways . . . to disrupt the First Order!" Rey was finally able to press a shield back against Teeta to protect herself and Rose from the worst of her onslaught, and she grunted as she pushed back against the older, more experienced woman's attack.

"I don't think so." Teeta advanced on Rey. "Socar was hailed minutes ago. The Supreme Leader himself is about to land, and he demands an immediate audience with Socar . . . and with you."

"He tracked our ship!" Rose implored from her knees. "We have been running from the First Order since we were attacked on Crait. The Supreme Leader is obsessed with finding Rey—he won't stop until he has her."

Teeta released Rey, but snarled at her. "I will feed you to the Supreme Leader myself if it keeps my people safe."

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Socar had hastily erected a long tent on the landing strip of the space port. Teeta vibrated with a combination of anger and fear as she stood behind Rey and Rose at its entrance. Rey paid her no mind as she scanned the horizon for any sign of the Falcon. Chewie must have moved it prior to Ben's landing, and she wondered how they had affected Finn's transfer to Ben's shuttle.

Finally, Socar whipped back the flap of the tent and jerked his head to indicate that they were to enter. Rey heard Teeta gasp when she laid eyes on the Supreme Leader at the other end of the tent.

"Traitor!" she hissed. She grabbed Rey's arm and drug her back. "I knew you were expecting your man. I'd never have dreamed that your man would be a vile _islakalah_ like the Supreme Leader. He drinks the blood of children and sleeps on a bed made of their bones." Teeta spat in the dirt at Rey's feet. "May you meet the same foul death he does some day."

Socar glanced warily between the two women, and with a jerk of his blaster, he motioned Rey and Rose inside the tent. He marched them through an aisle in the tent guarded on either side by a dozen storm troopers in a block formation. At the end of the tent, Ben sat imperiously on a raised platform. Finn stood perfectly straight in a pristine black officer's uniform at Ben's shoulder. His arms were locked behind his back in a close imitation of the way Hux presided over the dreadnaught's bridge, and an expression of absolute disdain was frozen across normally expressive face. Ben's face was serene, his eyes hard and his jaw set like stone, and he had very securely blocked his emotions from flowing through their bond.

When Rey looked into Ben's cold dispassionate eyes, she saw utter contempt. She wasn't worthy of his rage, and barely rated his indifference. His eyes rested on her for the barest of moments before his eyes flicked away dismissively, as though disappointed or bored. Never before had he looked like that, even when he counted her amongst his enemies. He looked through her, like she was . . . nothing.

Rey's breath caught in her throat when the thought passed her mind. No . . . it's not true. Rey squeezed her eyes shut and sought him through the bond, and was shocked at what she found there. If his expression maimed, then the barbed aggression she felt through their bond could kill. She'd felt Ben's hot rage, and she'd seen him so far gone in bloodlust that reason was impossible, but she'd never seen anything like this before.

Ben had constructed an opaque wall of ice many feet thick and wrapped it around her consciousness. To her horror, Rey saw it was slowly contracting. When she reached out to touch his consciousness with the barest whisper of contact, Rey received a painful jolt, like an electric shock, that nearly dropped her to the ground.

When Rey winced and grunted in pain, Rose threw her a panicked glance. Rey was grateful she hadn't thrown herself against his mind. The piercing cold that rolled off the barrier between them seeped from her mind into her flesh, and a near paralyzing wave of bone-deep cold washed over her. She realized with absolute clarity that the consequences of anything Ben made real in their joined consciousness would be felt absolutely in her flesh, be it a loving caress or the edge of a blade.

Rey felt Rose's fear bubble up beneath her ribs, and it fed her own. Rey's heart threatened to pound a hole through her chest and she struggled to catch her breath and press down her fear. When she struggled out of their joined consciousness and through the miasma of her fear, she saw that Ben wasn't just using his raw power to full effect within their minds. It sizzled through the air around him for several feet, and it made the chair, the dais, even Finn shimmer like a mirage.

Rey saw that Ben was watching her take him in. He quirked a brow up a fraction of an inch, as though to ask, Well? Rey drew in a deep shuddering breath and when she shook her head slowly, one corner of his wide mouth curled ever so slightly in derision. Not Ben . . . that's not Ben. That's Kylo Ren.

 _Trust him_. Issaa's voice rang out clearly in Rey's mind, and it helped her ground herself. _Your doubts are burning stones. Lay them down._

Rey closed her eyes and tentatively reached out through their bond towards Ben again. She approached the barrier but did not touch it, and she balled her hands so tightly that her blunt nails dug painfully into the flesh of her palm. Though its cold burned, she swallowed her fear and allowed Ben's aggressive indifference to seep into her. _I trust you. I trust you. I trust you_. She repeated it over and over, a mantra to breathe by, a hope to live by. She tried to look past Ben's impassive dark eyes and see the man who had fought so hard for her in Snoke's throne room, willing him to still be there on the other side of that impassive wall. _I trust you_ . . .

"General," Ben's voice was deeper than she remembered ever having heard it, and its commanding tone offered no possibility of refusal. "I understand that there is a situation between your facility and the people of Obachi. Production levels have fallen far below acceptable standards, and I understand that you have experienced disconcerting losses. Perhaps we can reach some kind of understanding that will be mutually beneficial."

Socar's eyes widened in disbelief. "The Supreme Leader is astoundingly well informed."

One of Ben's brows quirked up, and Socar swallowed hard. "I understand that this woman, Rey-Okan, has offered herself as intermediary between the people of Obachi and the First Order."

"Actually, my Lord—"

Ben leaned forward suddenly, one hand braced on the arm of the chair and the opposite elbow propped on a knee as though he was about to rise. "Is that not correct? Have I been poorly informed as to the state of affairs here on Eurillis? Is there something you'd like to add?" Ben's voice was cruel and cold, sharp as a knife.

"No . . . No, Supreme Leader."

Ben sat slowly back, and he raked Socar acidly with his eyes. "I have brought with me Commander Elsoth. He will be conducting a thorough inspection of your facility while I speak with Rey-Okan. I recommend for your sake that he find it in exemplary order."

Socar bowed smartly to Ben, but Rey could see that a dark stain of nervous sweat had started to spread across the shoulders and back of the outdated dark grey First Order uniform Socar wore. "Of course, Supreme Leader. It will be our pleasure."

Socar turned, and Finn began to follow him back down the aisle of the tent between the storm troopers. Ben's eyes fell on Rose, visibly trembling and panting in fear, and he recalled Finn almost immediately, his voice low and almost dismissively casual. "Just a moment, Commander."

Finn halted just a bit too slow, forgetting that he was a commander now, and turned to face Ben. "Yes, Supreme Leader?"

Ben inclined his head just a fraction of an inch towards Rose. "I understand that this woman is a part of what was once the Rebel Alliance. I can't imagine how she came to find herself on Eurillis. See to it that she is turned out into the dunes between the base and the sea. She will make herself a useful meal for the arctenon."

All color drained from Rose's face, and she looked between Rey and Finn with alarm. Finn took her roughly by the arm and dragged her bodily from the tent. When Rose's protests could no longer be heard, Ben's eyes flicked coldly over the assembled storm troopers. "Leave us."

As one, they made a sharp about face and marched from the tent. Rey stood trembling in silence, meeting Ben's negligent gaze across the few yards that separated them. Rey tracked Rose's progress across the sand, and felt the hot tears of betrayal that coursed down her face as she watched Finn and Socar speed away. Rey expanded her consciousness, searching desperately for Chewbacca, hoping that he was actively looking for Rose.

"Rey. Look at me."

Rey's attention snapped back to Ben. _I trust you. I trust you_. Rey had continued repeating her mantra beneath the current of her more pressing thoughts, though with his dark gaze boring into her, her conviction was waning. Ben leaned forward in his chair, focusing his full attention on Rey. His lips tightened briefly, and his chin trembled, and then the wall of electrified ice between them shattered.

Rey's knees nearly buckled beneath the onslaught when Ben's anxiety and fear washed over her. He had been terrified that Teeta would recognize him as the Supreme Leader the previous night and that Rey would be tortured or worse for her deception, so he had left the dreadnaught several hours earlier than he had originally anticipated. It had been merest chance that Teeta had not put the face of the Supreme Leader together with the man hovering over Rey's shoulder until the moments before Rey had entered the tent.

Ben stood and closed the distance between them with only a few strides. When he reached her, Ben took Rey's face into his hands and kissed her thoroughly. _I'm so sorry-I've got you. It's going to be fine now_.

Rey's hands dug into Ben's forearms and she sobbed into his chest. _I thought you were gone!_ _When I reached out for you and you didn't respond, I thought I had lost you_. Rey looked up into Ben's face, and her eyes were streaming. _It was agony to touch your mind, and I thought I had lost you to the darkness entirely!_

 _No, Rey . . . no._ Ben held her face gently between broad hands _. Not even Snoke could push me all the way into the darkness. If I couldn't sever myself from the light then, I will never be able to do it now that our souls are bound together._

Ben looked down at her imploringly. _I'm sorry_. _I had to close my mind to you. They needed to see Supreme Leader Kylo Ren for this to work . . . I can't be Kylo Ren when I feel you inside of me._ Ben smoothed back strands of hair that had slipped loose _. Even if the darkness calls to me, I will always come back to you._

Rey felt Ben's reassurance flow through her, and her frayed nerves began to settle now that the familiar sensation of his thoughts flowed once again against her own. He held her close, her arms linked around his waist, and she breathed in his familiar, comforting scent. They waited for their heartbeats to synchronize and for their thoughts and feelings to find their normal, comfortable equilibrium.

As the minutes slipped away, Ben stroked her back, and when he sensed that she had found her center and was comfortable with him again, he asked, _Are we OK?_

Rey looked up and offered him a tremulous smile. _We're OK._ Rey's eyes flew wide and she drew back sharply from Ben. "What about Rose? And Finn?"

"Chewie already has Rose aboard the Falcon. Finn made only a cursory inspection of the facility, and he will be back aboard the Falcon in a matter of minutes as well."

Rey closed her eyes and reached out for Rose, and found her sobbing into Chewbacca's shoulder. He patted her shoulder awkwardly, murmuring something consoling that Rose couldn't understand, but she clung to him nonetheless. Finn was already striding away from Socar, and she felt his relief when he stepped aboard the Falcon and the ramp into the cargo bay closed behind him. He ripped off the First Order officer's jacket with such revulsion that buttons popped off and rolled away across the floor of the cargo bay.

Ben followed the thread of her thoughts _. It's just us now_.

Rey breathed her own profound sigh of relief and let her head fall forward into Ben's chest. _Just us . . . It's always going to be just us now, isn't it?_ Rey turned her face to the side so that his heart beat against her ear. "How is this going to work? When we are done, it has to look to both the Order and the Rebellion that they gained a strategic victory."

With gentle fingers beneath her chin, Ben raised her face to his, and he earnestly answered. "They can have the entire system if you would just come back with me. I'd gladly give them every scrap of territory the First Order ever seized."

Ben lowered his face to hers, and when he kissed her, he allowed his feelings to flow gently back through the bond. Ben's tenderness chased away Rey's fears, and the usual warmth between them slowly bloomed. Rey realized distantly that they hadn't been in one another's presence since Snoke's throne room, and he felt different than she remembered from their touch through the force bond.

Through their bond, his physical presence was tempered by his own self image, so what she received from his mind was vastly diminished from reality. She knew he was tall, but had forgotten that he towered over her. She knew he was strong, but had forgotten that the wide palms and long fingers that gently stroked the length of her spine could just as easily snap it. She knew he was powerful, but had forgotten that the Force crackled around him, barely contained, and noticeably pressed against her skin even when they did not touch. She knew he was driven by his passions, but had not realized the depth to which they now focused on her. She had felt his warmth, but did not realize that his touch would sear.

Ben had completely torn away the barrier between them, and he felt her appraisal of him. He was embarrassed but absurdly pleased with her conclusions. As they melted deeper into one another, Rey could feel Ben's desire slowly stir, dark and rich, within him. She couldn't stop herself from softly groaning in response when his kisses deepened. Ben lifted her into his arms, and his lips followed the line of her throat. He slid aside the fabric with a brush of his nose, and his kisses continued along one shoulder.

Ben carried her back to a table that had been set to the side of the tent, and he leaned upon its edge, propping his foot on a nearby chair to support her weight. His hands bunched in the fabric at the small of her back as he pressed her closer, and Rey's arms had settled clasped atop his broad, powerful shoulders.

Awash in the tide of emotions that echoed and reechoed between them, time seemed to have stopped. She kissed her way along the edge of his chin and down to his high stiff collar. Rey laid her forehead into the crook between his neck and shoulder, catching her breath, trying to surface.

Rey threaded her fingers through his hair, and allowed him to feel the depth of desire he had opened in her. Ben reiterated through the bond, _They can have anything they like._

"If only it was that easy." She kissed him gently but persisted, "What do you need to make the Order believe you came here and brought these people into line?"

Ben tightened his jaw stubbornly. "I already told you what I need."

Rey smiled fondly but sadly at him and curled the back of her fingers against his cheek. "Will you start this way every time I see you?"

Ben laid his forehead against hers. "Every time, until you say yes."

"The force bond isn't enough for you?"

Ben clasped her hips and pulled her body tighter against his so that she could feel his desire between them. _Is it enough for you?_

Rey looked into his dark eyes and responded with a soft, _No._

 _Then how long are you going to deny me?_

Rey tightened her embrace and kissed him fiercely. _Long enough to turn the tide . . . and not one moment longer._


	12. Chapter 12

Ben allowed Rey to slide back to the ground, and she felt his disappointment almost palpably through the bond, though it lacked bitterness. As yet unwilling to relinquish his embrace, she looked up into his dark eyes. _You aren't angry?_

Ben shook his head. _I knew what your answer would be before I asked, but I still had to ask. At least now I know that there will come a day when you will come to me willingly_.

Rey laced her fingers behind Ben's neck and pulled him down to her. _I have always come to you willingly_. She gently kissed him. _Now I come to you eagerly_.

Rey felt Ben's disappointment turn into anticipation and relief. She laid her hand against his cheek as she stepped out of his arms, and he turned his face slightly into her touch, trapping it there with his own hand. Through their bond, she could feel that beneath the layers of scars earned by enduring years of neglect and torture, Ben's heart held a vast untapped reserve of love that welled within him, desperately seeking an outlet. She saw now that every time they were together, the blackened shell that he had built around the tenderness of his soul chipped away infinitesimally, and he inched toward the light, or at least towards a state of equilibrium. When he implored her to stay with him, the request didn't come from a man craving the satisfaction of his lust. It was a cry from a soul withering in the desert, too long deprived of hope.

"How long do we have? How long would the Supreme Leader spend in an initial negotiation?"

Ben barked with a laugh of derision. "The Supreme Leader doesn't negotiate. His underlings root out dissention, and he obliterates it. By normal standards, you've already outstayed your welcome, and the storm troopers are right now dreading how many pieces of you they are going to have to scrape up and dispose of." Rey blinked in alarm at Ben's frankness. He continued wryly, "You can imagine Hux's disappointment."

"We've already taken too long."

Ben nodded. "What does the native population need?"

"They have been on the brink of famine for some time. The First Order insists that they grow the staple crops that are used to manufacture standard ration packs." Rey tipped her head, a thought occurring to her. "Off world, almost no fresh food is consumed at all, is it?"

Ben shook his head. "I haven't tasted anything other than standard issue rations since I stopped training with Skywalker. Storm troopers are fed a high-protein diet laced with chemicals that develop muscle and bone mass . . . and drugs that accelerate growth and make them more compliant. Haven't you ever noticed how tall most of them are?"

Rey lifted her brows and flicked her eyes up at Ben, towering nearly eight inches over her. Her lips quivered with amusement. "I've noticed. The problem, though, is that those crops were never meant to grow here. They are destroying the land, and there's not enough water for the crops and the people. The people retain very little of what they grow, and they are starving. Within a few generations, you will be lucky to have a native population here at all."

"Perhaps that's by design. Famine is an effective tool for controlling a population." Ben's brows drew together, and he flicked on a holo that sat on the table to display a projection of the planet. She could feel the cold, analytical part of his mind begin to hum, and his thoughts took on the orderly, rhythmic tone she recognized from his time aboard the dreadnaught. "How can there not be enough water? Most of the planet is lush and green."

As the holo rotated ponderously, Rey pointed to the mountains that ranged throughout much of the planet. "There are enormous reserves of water in the highlands, but the First Order has cordoned off all mountains in the planet. People suspect that there is something of great value they intended to mine there, but after conquest, industry ground to a complete halt.

"You saw for yourself that the women here command very specialized skills within the Force. Perhaps those walls don't barricade the mountains. I'd be willing they are there to bar the women from direct access to the abundant plant and animal life that is the source of their strength."

Ben frowned. "Maybe, but I won't know for certain without a geologic survey. It sounds like what people need right now is access to food and fresh water. I can direct the garrison to drill wells as a sign of good faith and instruct Socar to make plans to build infrastructure to move the water to the lowlands. With more water, they could increase food production and avoid famine." He glanced up at Rey. "Many problems would be solved if the reeducation facility were closed, but I will need a report from Finn before we can move forward." He nodded curtly. "Dis—"

Without thinking, Ben had slipped into the domineering attitude he used to manage the personnel of the dreadnaught, and he had almost dismissed Rey out of habit. He caught himself and bit his tongue to ensure the dismissal did not pass his lips. By the time he glanced up at her from the holo, though, she had already read his intent through the bond, and stood with arms crossed beneath a bemused expression.

She lifted a brow and cocked her head. "You were saying?"

Ben tapped the corner of the holo, and it winked out. He took a deep breath, and she felt sudden nervousness ricochet through the bond. He was reluctant to look at her. "I don't know how to do this. I know how to command and be commanded. I know how to take, but I absolutely know what it feels like to be taken from. I know how to weave my thoughts and feelings so tight that not even a master of the dark arts can penetrate them, but I don't know how to bind them harmoniously with yours." Finally, Ben looked up. "I did not intend . . ."

Rey came closer and took his hand away from where it fiddled with the holo. "I know what you intended." Rey lifted her chin, obviously expecting him to lower his face to kiss her. When he obliged, she continued, _I don't know how to do this either. I've been alone all my life, but now we're bound as one. We will have to figure it out_.

Rey turned away and approached the flap of the tent. Before exiting, she stopped, stood up straighter, and rolled back her shoulders. She could feel Ben's gaze trace the contour of her body as surely as though his hands burned through her clothes. His amusement and enjoyment of the display tickled tantalizingly through the bond. _Stop. I'm trying to work myself up to looking angry with you_.

Instead, Ben stepped closer to her. He wrapped his hands around her shoulders and pressed a kiss to the back of her neck. _Would it help if I dismissed you?_

Rey felt a bubble of mirth build inside her, and she wasn't sure if it came from her own feelings or Ben's. Though she intensely enjoyed Ben's affection playing through the bond and being so earnestly plied across her skin, she shrugged her shoulder and squirmed away from him. _Only if you meant it_.

Rey was shocked at how thoroughly Ben snapped his emotions back from her consciousness. "Get out." Ice water surged through the bond, but not with the kind of vehemence that had been there before.

She felt assaulted, though his sharp withdrawal hadn't caused her any pain. Rey turned and glanced over her shoulder, and Ben's eyes were stone, his jaw set. Rey narrowed her eyes. _You really are very good at this_.

Ben's eyes softened and his lips trembled slightly, and she felt a tendril of sympathy snake back through their bond. _I've had to be_.


	13. Chapter 13

When Rey emerged from the tent, Socar gasped audibly. His surprise that she had survived her encounter with Kylo Ren was genuine. "You really are the Supreme Leader's woman, then?"

Rey glared into the older man's eyes, weighing her answer in her mind and the consequences that could result. She decided that these were hard people, used to fear and deception, and responded defiantly, "Yes. Absolutely." At the same time Socar's features twisted in anger and disgust, she felt a dark rumble of approval through her link with Ben, though she daren't acknowledge it. "I was also sent here by the Rebellion, and it is my full intent to negotiate with the Supreme Leader terms that will significantly improve your life on Eurillis."

"What do you get out of it?"

Rey felt Teeta approaching, and she glanced at Socar's wife pointedly, and then back at him. "The other half of my soul, liberated from the darkness."

Socar looked at Teeta, and something wordless passed between them. "And what does he get out of it?"

"A foundation for order, the first step towards balance."

Socar looked skeptically at Rey. When Teeta joined them, she asked the most important question, bile dripping from her tongue. "What will it cost us?"

Rey smirked darkly. "Tell the Sisters we will eat slink tonight, and we will take back what is theirs."

Teeta lifted a brow and cocked her head. Rey could feel Teeta's power probing the edge of her thoughts and testing the boundaries of her power, and she opened her mind enough to allow an image to pass through. Teeta nodded slowly. "Issaa was right about you . . . and about him." Teeta nodded at Socar before turning away, a beaconing finger lifted. "Come Rey-Okan. We will see if we can fix those Hotu forms."

Rey started to follow Teeta, but Socar stepped into her path. "I have spent most of my life guarding these people. I will not allow you or your cur to destroy what I have made here." Socar glared at Rey and his fingers twitched against his weapon.

Rey glanced at the blaster. "Do you think that if you strike me down, the Supreme Leader will suffer any of you to live?" Rey drug her eyes back to Socar's menacingly. Though Ben seemed unbothered by Socar's insult, she wasn't willing to let it stand unchallenged. "Kylo Ren may be young, but he is more powerful than you can imagine. You could make him into an ally or an enemy—be careful of what you choose."

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

 _Will you join us?_

 _I wish that I could. If there is even a single whisper that the Supreme Leader could have been party to what you're about to do, it would destabilize the entire region. . . . But I'll enjoy watching you do it._

Rey could feel the sly smile in his voice, and her own lips curved in response. She watched from atop the concrete wall as his shuttle made its way through the lower atmosphere and winked out of sight into orbit around Eurillis. Within minutes, he was just one amongst many stars in the deep black.

"Rey-Okan, it is time."

Rey nodded at Teeta. Ranged on either side of her were dozens of women and girls, most dressed in First Order black.

Teeta stood in the center of the nearly fifteen-foot thick barricade. She stretched her arms out in front of her, and as she took a slow deep breath, she drew her hands back towards her heart and slid back into a wide back stance. With her exhale, she pushed her hands forward and allowed her body to flow through to a deep forward stance, her bare back foot only barely balancing against the concrete with the tip of a toe. With her next breath, the women on either side of her joined in synchrony, their gestures and breaths matching their master. On the third breath, Rey and Issaa joined with a handful of other women, and by the eighth breath, every woman and girl flowed through the opening salutation of the form in perfect alignment.

When she closed her eyes, Rey could feel the Force more palpably than she ever had before. Her feet were anchored to the barricade as though cemented in, and through the soles of her feet, she could feel energy flowing from the thick forest beyond the barricade, through the earth, and into her body. When she pressed out her consciousness and feelings, she felt the women and girls on either side of her, and she realized now why they breathed in synchrony. Through the repetition of the form salutation, in the air breathed and rebreathed between them, in the spaces between every woman and child, the Force was being gathered together and tightly knit into a psychic net. Rey no longer felt her own breath, but instead felt the lungs of each of the linked minds expand and felt the fiber of each muscle contract and release against each bone, from the chubby arms of a four-year-old to the withered limbs of the crones. As a group, they harnessed power that could never have been summoned by a single Jedi master working alone, and in the center of the net stood Teeta, Issaa, and Rey, the triumvirate who would be the lens for their concentrated power.

They moved and breathed as a single organism, and together they felt when the salutation was complete. As one, the women on the flanks shifted their stance, and though the young girls continued the salutation, but with ever deeper stances and fuller extension, the older women moved into the next phase of the form. A twist, one hand circling high over the head and snapping into a low block, the other hand following into a high temple block. The extended, blocking hand made a grab and drew up to the heart while the front foot drew up to the knee, and a surge of power was drawn with the hand and foot, gathered into the core. Hands circled together, exchanging positions, as when a staff is spun, followed by a hard strike to the front, and dozens of feet slammed back into the barricade hard enough to make the wall tremble.

Twice more, Rey and the mothers and crones repeated the blocks and strikes. When their feet struck the wall this time though, beneath each heel, a split opened in the wall that descended to the ground. An "Irrrrrrah!" that had started in Teeta's heart tore the throat of every woman and child on the wall.

Led by the collective knowledge of their linked minds, Rey's hands floated back behind her hips, and then she raised them high above her head, one foot raised high onto her thigh while she balanced on the toes of the other foot. As one, the assembled women hovered as though suspended. Around them, the youngest of the girls had begun a low harmonic keening, and beneath their toes, the wall began to resonate. The women arched their bodies as the keening rose in pitch, and as the concrete beneath their feet began to tremble in earnest, they swung into a deep low stance. The women took a deep breath, stepped up into another tall stance, but this time, when Rey stepped back up into the second extended stance, she felt the amassed power between the women and girls gather around her. Power wound around her like thread around a spindle. At the end of the breath, as one, the women stepped forward and flung their arms forward, and the web that had been wound between them peeled away from the wall like a massive wave.

As the wave sheared away from the wall, the sand in its way at first burst into flame, and then fused into a single sheet of molten glass in the wake of the Force. It took only seconds for the wave to reach the reeducation facility, and when it did, it was obliterated.

Rey, Teeta, and Issaa, along with a handful of the oldest women, weakling crones at first glance, continued the form. They crouched low and snapped their arms into a crossed block before tearing their hands apart in double strikes, and as they did, the earth beneath the reeducation center opened, and it began to crumble even into its own foundations. Teeta held them all crouched here, trembling with the effort of holding the earth back, while the younglings quickly worked through the first Hotu form, but this time, drawing on the amassed power of the older women, a handful of girls summoned thousands of seeds, sleeping dormant beneath the sand, to sprout. In seconds, the countless yards of tender green tendrils shot across the sand and into the trembling crevasse, choking out flames from the demolished structure, and dragging it ever deeper into the earth.

When the last vestiges of the towers that had stood guard over the facility had been dragged into the bowels of the planet, the younglings breathed in as one, drawing their hands back over their bodies, over their faces and back, back, arching into the night sky, and the now enormous, sinewy vines withdrew from the gaping maw their mothers and aunts and sisters had opened in the earth. The masters, shaking from the effort of holding such a weight back for so long, exhaled and allowed their hands to slide back together at their hearts, and the earth closed, a tomb over decades of violence. As they closed their form, the maids and younglings turned their vines towards the miles of walls around Obachi, and the wall beneath their feet rocked with impact as the vines, many now the thickness of a decades old tree, slammed into the walls and were rent to rubble. Within minutes, the only barricade that remained was the one that supported the Sisters of Eurillis.

As one, the women and girls cycled back through the salutation, slower this time, and when they drew back into their low back stance, the earth that now concealed the wreckage of the First Order facility sank, and the women drew the sea in to cover it, as though it had never been at all. When the sea lapped at the cooling plain of molten glass, the glass crackled and sighed, and the Sisters allowed the Force to slide away, back into the trees and earth and beasts they had borrowed it from. Rey felt countless beasts that had laid down their bodies as though in death when the Force was drawn from them draw it back in, hearts began to pump blood, and eyes fluttered.

Rey stretched her consciousness out towards Ben with a sense of great contentment and joy, the soft echo of so many hearts set to ease. Though dozens of minds around her stretched out their appreciation and awe, she craved communion only with him. When their minds touched, she felt him cradle her gently and felt his pride and admiration wash over her like the tide. Between the warmth of his embrace and the exhaustion of focusing such an enormous amount of power with no training, she did not register when her feet stumbled over the edge of the remnants of the concrete barricade.


	14. Chapter 14

Rey awoke in her berth on the Falcon, Ben scowling down at her. _You need a teacher_.

Rey opened and closed her mouth, swallowing to moisten her dry throat. She blinked sleepily, and when she reached out for his face, Ben took her hand in his and pressed her fingers to his lips. _I thought I learned a lot on Eurillis_.

 _Maybe, but you were so drained with the effort that you fell off the top of the barricade._

Rey sat up, alarmed. _What?_

 _The youngling with hair like fire, Tuuva, saw you fall, and she caught you with only inches to spare._

 _How did I get here?_

Ben glanced into the corner of her quarters, and when Rey followed his glance, she saw Rose curled into a deep chair, one leg dangling over the arm, the shoulder of her shirt damp beneath where her full lips were parted in a quiet snore. _When you went back to the encampment with the Sisters, she insisted on leaving the safety of the Falcon and following you. She waited in the dark below the barricade, and was the first to reach you when you fell_. Ben continued dryly, _I think perhaps she has decided not to kill you after all_.

Rey smiled. _I'm grateful. She loves easily, but feels betrayal deeply. I hope she can find a way to forgive who I am_ , Rey glanced back at Ben, _who we are, together. Have you ever seen the Force used that way?_

Ben released her hand with a squeeze, and leaned back. _With many minds linked as one to channel the Force? Never_.

Rey looked askance, picking up a circuit board she had been rewiring in the hopes of salvaging the Skywalker saber _. What do you think would happen if we tried it?_

Ben's brows drew down and he frowned. _We're not going to try it. With the amount of raw power that we could summon between the two of us? It could kill you; it could kill both of us_. Rose groaned softly in her sleep, and Ben looked up as she stirred. _You should rest. Let's try this again in a few days on Vorthos_.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Though the circumstances in each system varied wildly, over and over again they found that in the decades since the First Order had abandoned regular oversight over its troops in their outposts, the storm troopers' loyalty had reverted to the people they were charged to subdue. It would take months, or perhaps years, before the Rebellion would be able to urge these people into full, open revolt, if ever, but in the mean time, the handful of Alliance survivors were safe. In return for menial concessions on his part, Ben was able to find ways that would significantly increase industry and production that would make it look as though he had actually tightened the First Order's grip on the systems and cemented their compliance. Hux would be unable to complain.

For their part, the Rebel Alliance was forced to accept Rey's negotiations with the Supreme Leader, even if they didn't understand their nature. Finn, however, treated her with increasingly sullen resentment and mistrust, and Rose continued watching Rey like a hawk. Oddly, as more systems were found to be receptive to Rebel alliance, General Organa became more distant from Rey, throwing herself into the minutia of maintaining the balance between the new factions that they were rapidly allying themselves with. Rey was hurt and confused, assuming that as the negotiations were more successful, her closest friends would have found themselves more and more at ease with her link and alliance with Ben. Rather than feeling closer to them, she was finding herself more and more estranged. At the end of each day, she was beginning to dread her return to the Millennium Falcon.

Rey squished up the ramp of the Falcon, wringing water from her clothes. The rain on Tallus Sept was a constant phenomenon, and the native population accepted it without question, not even donning a coat when heading out into the deluge. To better fit in, Rey had abandoned wearing one too, but her skin was becoming raw from the constant chafing of sopping clothes.

Finn glanced up irritably from the makeshift comms console Rose had rigged up on one side of the cargo bay. He had returned hours ago from the garrison, and the coat of his First Order officer's uniform steamed over an exhaust conduit that ran behind the console. "You could at least let us know if you are going to be negotiating with Ren all night. We've been waiting for you to return for hours." He leaned over and flicked a switch. "She's back finally. Lock 'er up."

Rey struggled with the bands that bound her hair back, trying to rip them out of her sodden hair so she could squeeze out the water. Glancing up at Finn, she answered, "The ortuu hunters demanded an audience with Ben this afternoon. They want to expand their fishing territories, and I've been trying to convey to them for hours that if they go any further south, they are going to trigger the mines the First Order dropped into the ocean when they first conquered Tallus Sept. Didn't you get my communiqué?"

Finn shrugged noncommittally. "It came through."

Rey struggled out of her water logged boots and threw them irritably aside. As she strode across the cargo bay, Finn leaned back in his chair, his arms crossed as he watched her come, his lips pursed and pushed out belligerently as though he had been waiting for her to come back just to have this argument.

"Why are you so angry? I thought this is what you wanted? I thought you wanted to rebuild the Rebellion and create peace in the galaxy!"

"I do! I just didn't think it would mean that I'd have to spend my days back under Kylo Ren's heel in a damned black uniform again!"

Rey looked down at Finn guiltily. "I know it's hard, but you have to know that you're the key to making all of this work. We can't do this without you. No one else knows what you do about the First Order. No one else will be able to gain the trust of the local garrison commanders like you can. No one else knows their protocols or etiquette or can even properly button up their ridiculous uniforms properly. Without you to coordinate the local garrisons, this whole plan would fall apart."

Rey could feel that Finn grudgingly appreciated her appraisal of his importance to the rebirth of the Rebellion. "I don't object to coordinating the garrisons." Finn jabbed a finger in the vague direction of where Ben's shuttle had landed. "I object to him."

Rey squeezed one of Finn's tense shoulders through his still damp shirt. "I know, but there's nothing I can do about it. We are bound together through the Force. You have to see that Ben's doing everything we've asked of him."

Finn looked up at Rey and clasped her hand in his. "For now. While it suits him. What it looks like to me is that he is tearing you slowly away from us. When we are on the ground, you spend every minute with him. When you're here, you spend most of your time like this," Finn tipped his head to the side and rolled his eyes back expressively, mouth agape, "listening to whatever he's whispering in your ear."

Rey's brows drew down, and she frowned. "I didn't ask for this, and either did he."

Finn looked away in thinly veiled disgust. "Maybe not, but he's making the most of it." He reached out and tapped one of the console displays, cycling through the encoded dispatches that poured in around the clock from the various garrisons. He glanced back at Rey cynically. "He's not Hux, but what we're doing here, it's hard to tell if we are destabilizing the First Order or just solidifying the power of the Supreme Leader."

"I thought what the Rebellion wanted was peace and order. We're trying to create that here, one system at a time."

Finn glared at Rey. "The Rebels want to live free. These people aren't free; they are just as securely shackled by the First Order as ever, only now they feel a little bit better about it. Just whose side are you on?"

"I'm on the side of peace and freedom and balance! We can't just jump into a fighter and blast our way through this problem. It's going to take time and a lot of talking to rebuild what was broken."

Finn stood and snatched the First Order officer's uniform off of the exhaust conduit. "That may be, but we're supposed to building a Rebellion to crush the First Order. You'd best be careful that you're not building up Kylo Ren's empire instead. Good night."

"Wh—uh! Finn, wait!"

 _Let him go._

"This is exactly what he's complaining about!"

Ben's silence was deafening, and he retreated behind a barrier in his mind. _Ben!_


	15. Chapter 15

Rey had stomped back to her quarters, alternating between mumbling retorts to Finn's accusations and hurling silent but only half-hearted insults at Ben through the force bond. After stripping off her sodden clothes and balling them into a chair, she had changed into dry clothes and laid down hungry and damp to toss and turn. It seemed like hours passed, but she finally settled into fitful sleep.

When she finally surfaced from her rest, Rey rose out of slumber slowly, relishing the warmth at her back. She could sense he was there.

"Ben?"

Rey turned and found him deeply asleep, his back to her. Her annoyance that he had shut her out had drained away, and she was grateful he was present again through the force bond. When she reached out a hand and stroked it down his spine, he shivered slightly, and she felt his consciousness stretch and begin to stir. His height, startling when he towered over her, was less pronounced when he was beside her, but she still felt dwarfed by his massive frame. She splayed her fingers across his ribs, and felt his chest expand with each breath, both beneath her hand and through their bond. She knew he was still waking up and probably wouldn't notice, so she tentatively licked her lips, and leaned closer to plant a soft kiss on his shoulder.

Ben gasped, and she could feel he had come instantly alert at her touch. His hand snapped out, summoning his weapon, but he stopped himself from igniting it at the last moment. Rey cowered against his back, her head pressed between his shoulder blades, and they trembled together, riding out Ben's fear until he was fully awake and it passed.

Ben opened his hand, and it shook as he sent the blade back across his berth on the shuttle and out of Rey's line of sight. He turned his head toward his shoulder, though she knew he wouldn't be able to see her, hidden behind the breadth of his back. When she started to withdraw her touch, long fingers trapped hers against his side.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have touched you."

"You can touch me." Ben's words were tense, clipped, and she felt that he was holding a strong emotion back from their bond. "I just didn't realize you were here." Ben laid his head back down slowly, pressing his eyes shut and clenching his jaw, trying to gather his thoughts together. "It has been a long time since someone has touched me and not tried to hurt me. I'm sorry."

Ben held his breath as she braved another kiss against one of the vertebrae between his shoulder blades. "I'm here now; you've got someone guarding your back."

"I know." Ben's answer was soft, and Rey felt his body relax slowly beside her. Rey listened to the silence between their breaths for several long moments in the dark before he continued, "I'm glad you're here."

Encouraged, Rey squirmed closer and wrapped her arms around Ben. "What did Snoke do to you to make you afraid of being touched?"

Ben sighed. "It doesn't matter."

"It matters to me."

Through their bond, Rey could feel his tension relax, though a thin barrier remained between their minds. He didn't want to show her this yet.

"Snoke had searched me out because I had Skywalker blood, and he was pleased when I left my uncle's temple in flames. Though he tried to hide it, Snoke was deeply afraid of the legend of Luke Skywalker. He believed only another Skywalker, turned to the Dark Side, would have the strength to strike him down. In the end," Ben's voice was distant, wistful, "Skywalker met me, but never intended to strike me down." Rey ran a consoling hand down Ben's arm, and she could feel bitter regret seeping through their bond. "The others did though."

Rey spoke softly into Ben's shoulder. "What others?"

"A handful of Skywalker's students fled with me, and Snoke took in all of us. Though none of us realized it at the time, he groomed each of us to become his apprentice, stoked malice, jealousy, and hate in each of us. Fights would break out randomly in the middle of the night, and training exercises would sometimes turn into a blood bath, with Snoke himself having to use the Force to separate us. We were so busy watching one another that we didn't realize that the true enemy was right in front of us. After a few months, only three of us remained. Bored with the effort of managing bickering students, Snoke provoked the other male student to attack me in the middle of the night. I killed him, but barely survived. By the time I recovered, the only remaining student, a woman, had fled, and Snoke had his apprentice."

Rey summoned the image of the girl at Luke's temple she had seen in Ben's mind. "Was it her?"

Rey felt Ben's feelings tighten into a knot, but she couldn't describe what precisely he felt. "Yes."

"Did you love her?"

The barrier between them trembled, but what Rey felt was embarrassment. "I thought that I did, but I was very young and did not know the difference between an infatuation and love. Eventually, I saw that she had manipulated me. Most of Skywalker's students were afraid of me, but not her. She saw my weakness, and she knew how to exploit it. After I killed my rival, I think she realized that what little power she had over me paled in comparison to the Dark Side and my fear and reverence of Snoke."

"Would you have killed her?"

"I'd have killed anyone Snoke wanted me to. He was the only person who wanted me or saw any value in me at all."

"What happened to her?"

Ben shifted onto his back and sighed. "I don't know. I tried looking for her, and I was surprised when Snoke forbade it. Now, though . . ." Ben turned his face towards her, and Rey had to lean back to see him clearly. "I think Snoke always knew where she was. I think he continued training her."

Rey sat up and drew Ben's cloak around her shoulders. She felt a brief frisson of pleasure through their bond when he recognized it. _Should we be worried?_

Ben gazed sightlessly up at the ceiling of his quarters, weighing his answer. "I don't think her power will ever come close to rivaling either of ours, especially if we fight together, but the Force can be used cunningly for other things than combat. She took to the power of the Dark Side more readily than I did. She drank it in and bathed in it. She's patient. When she attacks, it will be from the shadows, and it will come when we least expect it."

"Do you think Hux knows?"

"I think Hux at least suspects. There were many meetings between Hux and Snoke that didn't include me. Many more than I realized at the time. I can't imagine what Snoke told him, but Hux became increasingly arrogant before Snoke died." Ben sat and reached for Rey, laying the tips of his fingers against her cheek. "The day will come when we are both safer together than apart. It's coming sooner than you might think."

Rey took his hand in both of hers _. I know_.

 _What will you do when it comes?_

Rey looked around her grubby quarters aboard the Falcon. It was the first place that had ever felt like a home, and she was reluctant to leave the remnants of the Rebellion.

As much as she hated to admit it, Ben might never be able to leave the First Order, certainly not as long as men like Hux had the will and means to continue Snoke's conquest of the known universe. Ben followed the course of Rey's thoughs, but remained silent, though her reticence to leave the tattered remains of the Rebellion tore a gaping hole inside him. _I wish you could come to us_.

"You know I can't." Ben turned his face away in frustration and flopped back against his bunk.

Rey smoothed his tousled hair back and traced the contour of his face with the back of her hand. _I know, but it doesn't stop me from wanting you to be here with me. Things would be so different if you were here_.

Ben looked back at Rey defiantly. _Yes they would_. Rey allowed her affection and concern for him to seep through their bond, and his face softened. _I'm not on the dreadnaught now. We could leave the rest of them here to work with the local population to help set up a system of government while we move on to the next system_. Barely suppressed hope shimmered through the bond. _Would you like that?_

Rey didn't have to respond for Ben to feel that the idea appealed to her. "You'd like that."

Ben's eyes smoldered. "Yes I would."

Rey was still unsure of where the boundaries between them were. His thought wrapped around her mind during every waking hour, and though it wasn't acknowledged between them, she fell asleep every night wrapped in his cloak and the longing that simmered between them. He welcomed her touch, but she knew that like the bond and the feelings that flowed between them, her touch, what it meant, and his desire for her frightened him.

Hoping that she wasn't making him uncomfortable, Rey laid down across his chest and folded her arms beneath her chin so that their faces were very close. Ben said nothing, though she could feel equal measures of pleasure and nervousness through their bond. He propped his head on an arm behind his head and wrapped the other around her waist, and Rey smiled. _Finn will come apart at the seams if I leave with you_.

Ben's eyes narrowed slightly. _I didn't ask if Finn would like it._

Evasively, Rey answered, "I'd like to know what it would be like to be with you for more than a few minutes at a time without people constantly trying to kill us."

"Then don't get back on the Falcon tomorrow."

Rey pressed herself closer so she could kiss Ben. _Not yet_. Rey laid down at his side and rested her head on his shoulder.

 _When?_

Rey sighed. _When it won't break their hearts. When they know that you can be trusted. When they know I'm not abandoning them_. Rey spread her hand across his chest, and she felt his breath falter and his heart race to the rhythm of the frisson of longing entangled with fear through the bond. She responded first with wordless reassurance and warmth before concluding, _When you aren't afraid every time we touch_.


	16. Chapter 16

Rey squelched her way across the maze of pontoon bridges to the administrative support tower that they were using on Tallus Sept for negotiations. A gaggle of Ortuus, short, round amphibious natives with smooth, mottled grey skin and a long powerful tail, waited for her on the broad landing before the tower. They were humanoid only to the extent that they could walk right upright on two of their eight appendages, but the resemblance stopped there, as their bodies and heads were not even separate. She was tired and irritable, though her annoyance with Ben had dissolved with their conversation in the small hours, she had some very undiplomatic things to say to Commander Elsoth this morning.

She tried to swallow her annoyance before she reached the Ortuus, but when one of them grabbed her wrist between his long, powerful fingers, she nearly reached for her saber. Taking deep breaths, she glanced down at her wrist and saw that each of his fingers wrapped more than twice around her wrist.

Rey tugged ineffectually against the surprising density of his bulk. "Let me go! I am here to negotiate on your behalf!" When she was met with the shrieking and gurgling sounds they made through their dozens of gill slits out of water, she cast around for Irrelili. (That's what she called him. His name was something much longer that probably sounded quite lyrical in their tongue, but came out an ululating screech in open air.)

A particularly small Ortuu, probably one of their women, pushed her way to the front. Though it came out haltingly, she managed, "No want . . . pale hotblood to decide . . . for us. Only Irrelili speak . . . for Ortuu. Want water. All water . . . belong . . . to Ortuu. You no make . . . shadow men . . . take away the fire . . . from water? Maybe he do it . . . get you back."

Two more of the Ortuu had lashed their fingers around her legs and the opposite arm. "No! Kylo Ren will never negotiate to get me back! The First Order won't remove the mine fields until—"

The small Ortuu jerked her body, and the entire pod splashed into the water, dragging Rey into the depths with them.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Ben could feel Finn's disapproval boring into him from behind. Truth be told, he almost enjoyed the friction between them on Rey's behalf, even though Finn had nearly given up on his attraction to Rey. One corner of Ben's mouth twitched. Nearly.

Pulling his thoughts back to the situation at hand, Ben sighed deeply and steepled his fingers, trying to hide his annoyance with the grating Ortuu before him. Irrelili had demanded an audience with the Supreme Leader nearly an hour before Rey was scheduled to arrive to continue negotiations with the Ortuu, and he couldn't claim to have the same patience with them that she did. Irrelili had railed on in shrill, halting Galactic Standard about the history of his people, gesticulating wildly and complaining that the mine field had been planted over some sort of sacred site for the entirety of his audience. Ben had been anxious this morning to see Rey and continue their conversation; now he'd give just about anything to have her come if for no other reason than to intervene before he lost his temper and skewered the scraping little amphibian.

"We demand—"

Rey's fear tore through the boundary in Ben's mind. He stood instantly and bore down on Irrelili, his lightsaber ignited in his hand. "What have you done?"

"Supreme Leader!"

Ben barely registered Finn's objection as he bore down upon the slimy little creature in front of him. The Ortuu, narrowed his large, glassy eyes and smiled, displaying multiple rows of tiny teeth like needles. His gills flushed a deep blue in the glare of Ben's saber. "Now . . . I think . . . I have your . . . attention."

Finn was at Ben's shoulder, hissing, "Supreme Leader, perhaps we should wait for—"

"Go find Rey. They've done something to her—I felt it. She can't breathe."

Finn's eyes widened and he bolted through the doors of the tower, drawing his blaster.

"You like . . . hotblood female?" Ben didn't answer, but he ground his teeth together, and the Ortuu smiled even broader. "We thought so. Now we make real talk. Now we talk . . . what you do . . . get her back."

Ben recalled the plasma blade and extended a hand, closing off Irrelili's air. The Ortuu's mouth flopped open and shut, gills bulging, and his mossy eyes goggled, nearly popping from their sockets as his feet rose from the floor. Ben brought him close enough that he could see his own reflection in the creatures eyes.

"You've made a critical error. If she is damaged in any way, I will scrape every Ortuu out of the seas of Tallus Sept, and I will leave them to dry in the sun of Torphus 9." Ben dropped the Ortuu on the ground and strode out of the tower.

Sweat trickled down Ben's spine as he stormed blindly across the platform, screaming Rey's name through the force bond. Sometimes she responded weakly, and he felt fear and panic thrashing through their bond, and her thoughts were becoming wilder and more distant.

"Where is she?" Ben found Finn knelt on the edge of the bobbing pontoon bridge, his blaster aimed at the water, firing wide to try illuminate the depths in an effort to see where they might have gone.

"I don't know! I think they drug her into the water. At first, I saw some of them just below the surface, but they're gone now."

Finn goggled to see Ben racing across the landing, lightsaber in hand, and he flinched when Ben roared, "Why didn't you go after her?" Finn's eyes were wide in panic, and his mouth worked soundlessly. Ben spared him only a glance as he glared into the water. He answered his own question quietly. "Of course. A storm trooper wouldn't know how to swim."

Ben thrust out both hands, palm up, and flicked his fingers back. Nearly two dozen Ortuu burst from the water, Rey suspended lifeless between them. Ben flung them onto the platform with a snarl, unable to register anything but Rey's limp form.

Instantly, laser fire erupted around them, and Finn slammed Ben to the ground. "We're surrounded!"

Within minutes, storm troopers flooded out of the tower, answering the ground fire from the natives. Ben looked up, gauging the distance between himself and Rey when her voice winked out in his mind. In the expanse between their consciousness where she had come to reside in his mind, there was nothing. There was silence and emptiness, and he was alone.

Ben scrambled across the platform to Rey, where she laid pale and lifeless. Kneeling at her side, he extended his hands over her body, and used the Force to seek out the water in her lungs, and drew it out of her mouth. Finn fell on Rey, pounding compressions into her chest, and within a few compressions, she coughed and rolled on her side, wrapping her body around Ben's knees. Ben nearly sobbed with relief when her consciousness burst back into life in his mind.

Ben scooped up Rey and strode towards the tower, apparently unconcerned about the threat of crossfire, commanding Finn, "Come."

When Ben strode through the vestibule, the garrison commander stood trembling, waiting for the onslaught that he knew was awaiting him. He stammered, "Supreme Ruler, a thousand apologies. We thought that the area was secure—"

Ben turned and glared down at the commander, and Finn had never seen such rage pouring from him. "Tell your men to round up the natives. I want to know precisely who was involved. Commander Elsoth will stay here," Ben glared at Finn to deter the objection he already felt building in Finn's mind, "to oversee the detention. I will expect a report within the hour."


	17. Chapter 17

Rey wrapped her arms around Ben's neck and pressed her face into his shoulder as she struggled to breathe between deep wracking coughs. The foul seawater had even been forced up her nose, and her eyes watered with burning pain. She scrubbed her face against the back of her hand, and over his shoulder, she could see the storm troopers rounding up the Ortuu at gunpoint.

 _Ben, put me down._

 _No_. Instead, he subtly tightened his hold around her back and thighs, pulling her more protectively into his chest as he strode into the command tower.

She missed whatever orders he gave in the vestibule of the tower, unable to hear over another round of coughing. There was water still deep in her lungs, and she wheezed when she breathed. She laid her head down on her elbow and concentrated on breathing, which suddenly seemed to take up so much effort.

 _I'm fine. I can walk._

Ben huffed audibly, and put Rey back on her feet once the lift door closed on the chaos in the vestibule. When she stood, he took her face in his hands and pulled her in for a deep kiss.

 _We can't keep doing this. Those foul creatures almost killed you!_

 _They'd have returned me—_

 _Unacceptable. There will have to be a demonstration of force._

"What?" Rey followed Ben into a long observation deck. "You can't kill all of them just because they tried to take me hostage!"

Ben turned and took Rey in his arms and crushed her to him. "I'm the Supreme Leader. I can do whatever I want." When Rey gaped up at him in shock, his tone softened, but the fire behind his eyes did not. "I felt you die. I felt the moment you stopped breathing. They tried to sever the other half of my soul, and I will not let it pass unpunished."

"He's right, you know." Rey turned to see Finn stepping off the lift and his boots snicked out a brisk staccato against the immaculate black floor. "Whether you like it or not, he can't just let this go. They attacked an official envoy to the Supreme Leader during sanctioned negotiations. It's an act of war."

"What? You're taking his side now?"

Finn glanced between Rey and Ben, the irony not lost on him. "This isn't about sides." Finn ripped the communicator out of his ear and gestured wildly with it. "The comms for every system we have negotiated with have gone silent. They all know what just happened, and they are waiting to find out what the Supreme Leader is going to do. If the Supreme Leader does not act decisively, here, now, your dream of working within the First Order to find peace dies. If he doesn't demonstrate force when he is directly attacked, he'll have no authority to bargain with in other systems. His authority means nothing if it can be challenged so easily. How long do you think it will take before Hux sees dispatches that say that Kylo Ren showed mercy to a group of native insurgents? He's going to realize what Ren is doing out here." Finn licked his lips. "There's more."

Knowing what Finn was about to say and dreading Rey's reaction, Ben released her and began pacing across the room. Finn glanced up at him, but continued, "You're part of the problem. If people think that all they need to do is to snatch you, and the Supreme Leader will bow to any terms they demand, you'll have no authority to negotiate with them either. Somehow the Ortuu looked at the two of you and knew . . ."

Ben stopped pacing, and his gaze bored into Finn. "Knew what?"

Finn glanced at Rey. "Rey is your pressure point."

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Finn had sat with Rey for hours while Ben interrogated the Ortuu. She sat balled up against his side wrapped in a blanket, rocking and whimpering. At first, Finn had tried to comfort her, but when it became apparent that she neither saw nor heard him, he instead just held her and listened to the chatter between the garrison commanders.

Ben didn't want Rey to see what he had to do to interrogate the Ortuu, and had thrown up a thick barrier between them. Although she felt his inflexible resolve to root out the source of the uprising, she also felt that he despised what he had to do. Instead, she allowed herself to slip into their minds. She saw Ben, impassive and emotionless hovering menacingly over her, but she shared Ben's relief when nearly all of the Ortuu yielded what they knew almost immediately without Ben having to torture them significantly, though their acute fear was torture enough.

It turned out that the Ortuu were deeply empathic. Even though there was no outward sign of a connection between the Rebel negotiator and the Supreme Leader, many of them had intuited that seizing Rey would elicit a strong response from Kylo Ren.

When the last Ortuu had been questioned, Ben returned to the observation deck. He looked smaller somehow, deflated. When he saw Rey curled up next to Finn, he dropped the barrier between them, and she could see that though it had taken extreme restraint, he had been as merciful as he dared with the prisoners. Rey rose immediately and crossed the room, embracing him when he stepped out of the lift. From where his face was buried in Rey's neck, Finn could barely hear Ben's muffled, "Leave us."

From the corner of her eye, Rey could see Finn stand slowly. He crossed the room warily, and Rey gave him a brief nod to let him know she'd be fine if he left her there with Ben.

"They didn't know. They could feel the bond between us, but they didn't know its extent. They knew that taking you would elicit some sort of response; it was a gamble."

"What are you going to do?"

Ben turned from Rey and looked out at the driving rain pounding the windows in the dark. "What I must."

"You're going to have them executed?"

Ben nodded. "There's no choice. They made a direct attack against the Supreme Leader and a diplomatic ambassador. There will also have to be a larger demonstration of power—something that will send a message throughout the galaxy that if they come to the table to bargain with me, it must be in good faith."

Rey stood frozen. "What kind of demonstration?"

Ben tipped his head up, looking out the window at the thick clouds that blanketed the planet. "I will either have to destroy the Ortuu for the offense . . . or I can set off the mine fields and destroy their sacred place under the sea."

"That place means everything to them!"

Ben turned to face Rey. "Do you think I don't know that? Do you think I like being a monster? This is what it is to rule! I have to make decisions about who lives and who dies. Their culture will never recover from losing that place, but the alternative is to wipe them off the planet entirely. I can't continue to be the Supreme Ruler if I have no authority."

Rey glared at Ben. "Then stop being the Supreme Ruler."

Ben slowly started closing the distance between them, and his face was stricken. "You don't think I want that? You don't think I'd like to just take you and fly away and never look back?" Rey looked down at her pale icy feet, bare since she had discarded her sopping boots and stockings hours ago. "Do you think they would just let us go? The last Jedi and the last Knight of Ren? Formidable apart; unstoppable together. Hux would destroy every system in the galaxy if he had to to get to us. "

Ben took her hands, and she couldn't help but look at him. "You want to know why I'm scared to touch you? Every time I touch you, you become more real to me, and it gets harder to tell where I stop and you begin. Every time I touch you, I want you more, and I feel like I will shatter every time you go away.

"My entire life, everyone told me that I could never have what I already feel between us, that it was wrong, that it would destroy me." Ben clamped his mouth shut and took several shallow breaths, trying to calm himself. Rey could feel the turmoil in him, and he couldn't stop himself from going on. "They were right. You died. You died today, and my mind was silent, and I was terrified that you were gone forever. If I lose you, what little light there is in me will go out. When I was carrying you in here, I wanted to tear this system apart. Every time I looked at one of them, all I could see was you dead on the platform, and I wanted them all to suffer for it. It took everything in me to not cut them down one by one for trying to take you from me.

"So, no. I don't want to be the Supreme Leader. All I want is you. But if I stop being the Supreme Leader, there will never be a time or a place that will ever be safe enough to be with you." Ben framed Rey's face in trembling hands. He knotted his lips together, and they trembled as he tried to hold his emotions in check. A tear slid down his face. "Not the way I want to."

Rey lifted herself on her toes and pulled him down to kiss her. When she looked up into his face, she nodded sadly and laid a hand on his cheek. "OK. Set off the mines. Do what you have to do, and I will stand by you." Rey pulled his face closer so that their foreheads touched. "No matter what, I will stand beside you."

"And the executions?"

In her heart, she knew that if she begged Ben to relent, he very well might, but the consequences to such a show of mercy from the Supreme Leader would be disastrous. She could save a dozen lives, but the cost would be billions in the long run. Rey's lips trembled and felt numb. "I will stand beside you."


	18. Chapter 18

When Rey crossed the platform to the maze of pontoon bridges, she felt numb. Ben had held her through the executions, carried out in the vestibule below. They both felt it acutely when the light from each bright amphibious soul winked out, and the Force reverberated with the loss. When Ben had kissed her goodbye, she didn't know when she would see him again, and though she carried his thoughts with her always, this time it was torture to walk away from him. Now, forced to trudge past the corpses of the Ortuu, lashed to the light posts that surrounded the platform, she felt like a failure. She knew she had failed the Ortuu, she felt like she was failing Finn and Leia and the Rebellion, and walking away from Ben felt like she was failing herself.

As she blundered through the thick jungle in the driving rain, her boots sinking into the sticky mud between the exposed roots of enormous, writhing trees, she sobbed into the fury of the storm. With nearly a mile yet to go before she would reach the enormous cave where the Falcon was concealed, Rey couldn't continue. She drew herself into a hollow of one of the enormous trees and allowed her sorrow and regret to consume her. Though she felt Ben's caress of concern against her consciousness, she gently, regretfully drew up a barrier between them so that she could vent her anguish alone.

"These won't be the last deaths you feel before the First Order is destroyed."

Rey lifted her head from her crossed arms. Near enough to touch and oblivious to the rain sat an old man in Jedi robes on the twisted roots, softly glowing blue. He'd drawn up a heel, clasped his hands around his knee, and he waited patiently for her response with a solicitous expression.

Rey's teeth chattered around her words. "I was ssssent here to hhhelp them, and now their eldersss are all dead. Because of m-m-m-me."

"This is a war, Rey-Okan, and like it or not, you are on the front lines. You cannot lead the charge for long before being faced with the death of your comrades. In my time, I had to watch many friends fall. You did not cause the deaths of the Ortuu, and neither did young Ben Solo. They knew they were taking a risk, attacking someone they knew was of keen importance to the Supreme Leader, but in their desperation, they were willing to try."

"It f-f-f-feels like mmmy fault." Rey squinted into the rain. She could just see the lights from the tower in the distance, and she felt as though the eyes of the dead bored into her. "Will the deaths g-g-g-get easier?"

The old Jedi shook his head sadly. "The Force trickles through some of us like a stream, wandering and meandering. For others, it is a great rushing river. For some, like Anakin Skywalker, it is like the ocean, raging inside them and slamming them against the rocks, so that sometimes they control the Force, and sometimes the Force controls them. You are special, Rey-Okan. You and Ben Solo are like doors, and the Force is the wind that blows through. It doesn't fill you up like water . . . it pervades every fiber of your soul. You will continue to feel every death like a laser shot straight to your heart. The deaths won't get easier, but in time you will learn to accept that they were necessary."

The Jedi stood and looked down at her sympathetically. "All is not lost. You will see Ben Solo again, and next time, you will both be more careful." He crossed his arms, and then began slowly stroking his short white beard thoughtfully. "Do not let him deceive you—he mourns those deaths just as deeply as you do. He has just had to watch death snatch the innocent away much longer than you have."

Rey squinted as she looked up at the man, his luminescence almost burning her eyes in the dark. "What d-d-do you know of B-b-ben Sssolo?"

The man smiled sadly. "I have watched over Skywalkers for most of my life. They are passionate and dedicated. They pursue their beliefs with single-minded intent, sometimes to their own destruction. I still watch over them, but now I think my energy will best be spent by watching over you."

The Jedi stepped forward and offered Rey his hand. When she placed her hand into his, warmth flooded from his touch into her body, and an overwhelming sense of peace filled her and softened the bite of her sorrow. Rey took a deep breath, and when she released it, the crippling sense of guilt over the deaths of the Ortuu poured out of her.

"Who are you?"

He smiled gently. "Rey-Okan, I have always been with you. Search your feelings, and you will find my name there."

"Rey!"

Rey blinked, and the Jedi was gone. Through the pouring rain and the dense jungle, Finn emerged where the Jedi had been. He'd exchanged his despised First Order uniform for his customary flight jacket, and the rain beaded and slid off its surface.

"Finn? What are you doing here?"

"Come on. We've gotta go. There's chatter on the encoded First Order comms. The attack on Urobos Prime has started in earnest, but I don't think what we've been up to has gone unnoticed. There's things that are coming across that don't make sense, and a small fleet has broken off. Their trajectory suggests that they are headed straight for us."

Rey stood frozen for a moment, unsure. Finally deciding, she turned back toward the tower shimmering through the rain. "I've got to tell Ben."

Finn grabbed her arm and pulled her back. "He probably already knows. Tell him through your bond or whatever. We've got to haul ass, or we're going to be right here when that First Order fleet arrives."

 _Ben?_

 _I know. Get out while there's still time. I'll come to you when I can._

Rey ducked her head and allowed Finn to lead her back to the Falcon as quickly as he dared through the treacherous footing of the mire. By the time she dropped into her seat in the cockpit beside Chewie, she was exhausted, and wet. When she fell asleep leaned back in her chair, Chewie covered her with a blanket and turned his face back into the flickering glow of light speed.


	19. Chapter 19

All right, Armitage. Let's see what you've been doing while I was away.

Ben flipped through the hundreds of dispatches he had ignored in the previous weeks while he had been concentrating on spurring very quiet revolts behind Hux's back. Now that he felt Rey's mind relax into sleep, he dropped the barrier between them. He ground his fingers into his gritty eyes, wishing that he could join her, and stared blearily at the monitor. If a fleet was about to arrive, he'd better be prepared for whatever news they would be bringing. Whatever happened, at least he could be assured that she would be far away by the time they arrived.

Two hours later, Ben felt fairly well informed. He had smirked when he read through dispatch after dispatch that the conquest of Urobos Prime was not going as smoothly as Hux had hoped. It now appeared that the reason many systems had not responded to the Rebels' plea for help on Crait was that in the face of the Rebellion's final defeat, the few free systems were preparing themselves for their own last stands. Urobos Prime, standing haughtily on the edge of the galaxy, had had decades to watch the First Order conquer its way closer, and they were ready.

There was something else in the dispatches that did not please him, however, and had he not scanned through hundreds of them in a single sitting, he might very well have missed it. There were anomalies in the protocol and language of the dispatches. An odd word here, a number or a decimal misplaced there. Things that could be overlooked in one or two dispatches, but when he consistently saw the same types of anomalies over and over, it was unmistakable. Either these dispatches were concealing a second cipher in plain sight, or they were complete forgeries, conveying nonsense. Ben leaned forward onto the console. Or both.

How did Hux manage it? Rey had seen the inconsistency when Ben had been blinded by his own sense of inadequacy. Curious, Ben tapped on the display, digging through the archived records to the weeks before when he had murdered Snoke. Ben's eyes narrowed, and he practically growled his displeasure. Up until a day few days before Snoke's death, every destroyer and dreadnought had sent a single dispatch to high command reporting on the progress and state of the fleet under their command. Captain Canady, as a lower ranking member of High Command, had coordinated these dispatches and sent a single report to General Hux.

With a swipe of his finger, Ben sped forward in the comms log. When the Fulminatrix was destroyed over D'Qar, Captain Gorsach aboard the dreadnaught Inferno would have been promoted to fill the vacancy left by Canady's death. Ben ran a query through the central data server, pulling out only the communiqués of Anton Gorsach . . . and there they were. A single dispatch sent every day at 2200 hours standard, but encrypted with a different key and routed through a different comms link.

Unable to sit still, Ben stood over the console, punching the glass with such ferocity that he was surprised it didn't crack. He scanned through report after report, his temper rising with each one. After scanning the most recent report, Ben kicked his chair against the wall of his quarters and roared with rage.

 _Ben! What's wrong?_

Ben bared down on the surface of the console, pressing his fingertips into the glass and trying to calm himself. _It's nothing. Go back to sleep_.

Ben felt strong, gentle hands slide up his back and squeeze his shoulders. _If it was nothing, you wouldn't be so angry. What has happened?_

Ben straightened and righted his chair before the console again. _Lies. All lies. I've been struggling to keep up with hundreds of dispatches and all of them were fabrications sent from_. . . Ben rapidly keyed in a query and programmed in the master key access code. He dropped back into the chair and snarled through the bond with grim satisfaction . . . _the Supremacy. Every last one_.

Rey squeezed Ben's shoulders. _What does that mean?_

 _For weeks, Hux has flooded me with hundreds of false and irrelevant dispatches. Now that I look at them properly, he was even sending sortie reports from every tie fighter in the fleet. I finally realized that the numerical designation was wrong_. Ben jabbed at a sequence on the screen. _Some of these are no doubt authentic, but of such low priority, I should never have received them. Others are plain forgeries. In the meantime, the actual daily dispatches were encoded with an older, Imperial sequencing and routed through a dormant subroutine that has been running in the background all this time. In effect, he has been in sole command of the First Order for weeks and has made no effort whatever to follow the orders I have issued_ _. . . and now he's sent a destroyer division to check up on me, though the dispatch reads that it was deployed in support of the Supreme Leader in response to a local uprising._

 _You can't let that stand._

 _No. I'm going to have to return almost immediately and remove him from duty. Damn it!_

Ben propped his head in his hands, trying to swallow his bitter frustration. He felt Rey's concern and sympathy wash over him, and her fingers combed through his hair soothingly.

 _That's not all._

 _There's more?_

 _Snoke's missing passenger has been located. They were picked up by the Inferno earlier that day._

 _Where is the Inferno now?_

 _It has joined the Supremacy in the attack on Urobos Prime._

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Rey raced through the curving corridors of the Falcon, pulling on a long jacket over the rumpled tunic she'd gone to bed in. She could tell by the sound of the engines that Chewie was getting ready to take off. She slammed into the doorframe when she made the turn into the cockpit.

"Stop! Put us down. Shut everything down except basic life support."

Chewie glanced up in surprise, but immediately throttled back the engines and put the Falcon back down. He looked up at her and murmured inquisitively.

"We're not going anywhere. There's a destroyer division about to drop out of light speed, and if they get a taste of our exhaust, they are going to be able to track us no matter where we go."

Finn's heavy boots pounded into the cockpit. "What's wrong? Why aren't we leaving?"

Rey glanced back at Finn. "It's too late. The chatter on your comms is several hours old. They are nearly here, and besides," Rey leaned onto the console and squinted into the rain, "I'm not leaving Ben to deal with them alone."

"What do you propose we do? There's four of us and the Millenium Falcon."

Rey glanced down at the radar, and the destroyer lit up the display when it dropped out of light speed. "Is your uniform dry yet?"

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

By the time Rey had trudged back through the mires, the destroyer had already sent their delegation down to the surface. Rey had entered the command tower from a different entrance and exchanged her tattered and filthy desert clothes for Finn's musty uniform. She was grateful that the pants could be adjusted at the side to cinch them to her waist, and though still baggy, she was able to stuff the several inches of excess length into her boots. The jacket was another issue, as over the preceding weeks, Rose had tailored it to fit Finn, and it was noticeably too long. Rey cuffed the sleeves under and tightened the belt as much as possible, and trusted to the Force that no one would look to closely.

After several wrong turns, she was able to make her way back to the vestibule of the tower, mercifully unnoticed. She edged closer, and from her perspective she was able to see and hear the delegation clearly.

A tall, gaunt man, probably at least in his sixties held his chin just a little too high as he proclaimed, "—were sent here on General Hux's direct orders—"

"Tell me, has General Hux subdued Urobos Prime?"

Confusion flickered across the man's face, and he glanced at his subordinate to his left, who offered the shadow of a shrug and an infinitesimal shake of his head in response.

"No, Supreme Leader, but—"

"Are you aware that he was commanded to have Urobos Prime firmly within our grasp by the time I returned?"

"No, Supreme Leader, but—"

"And can you imagine the depth of my displeasure if the conquest of Urobos Prime is not completed on schedule?"

The man glanced at his subordinate again, this time with deepest dread. "No . . . Supreme Leader."

"Then perhaps you can enlighten me why you loitering here, rather than at your post, securing Urobos Prime."

The commander took a long, slow breath. "When General Hux received a dispatch that described an uprising on Tallus Sept and that the Supreme Leader himself was here when it had happened, we were dispatched to provide support."

"Surely you noticed that the corpses of Ortuu elders that instigated the uprising have been lashed to for display around the perimeter outside."

The commander licked his lips nervously. "Yes, Supreme Leader."

Ben leaned forward in his chair and quietly hissed. "Does it look like I need your help to put down an uprising by a handful of slimy natives?"

"No, Supreme Leader."

Ben sat back in his chair, darkly pleased. "Good. I'd not like for . . . inaccuracies to be spread within the First Order. It creates confusion and wastes precious resources and time that would best be spent elsewhere, such as subduing the system that was to be the crowning achievement of all that Supreme Leader Snoke hoped to achieve. Don't you agree?"

"Yes, Supreme Leader."

Ben steepled his fingers and rested the tips of his index fingers against his lips as though considering what to do with the poor fools in front of him. "This incident makes me question the wisdom of permitting General Hux the freedom to oversee this very important annexation without my direct oversight. Perhaps he, and the rest of the fleet, require my particular attention so that they will be able to stay focused. I have business on Kerst before I return. I pray that when I see your name on today's dispatches, your position is listed in the Urobian System, not the Talussian System. There are ten hours before that dispatch is distributed. If I do not, I think you will find that my displeasure will be able to reach you in the most immediate of ways, no matter where you are. I recommend you return to your ship. Immediately."

"Yes, Supreme Leader." Both men responded together, instantly. The subordinate was sweating so profusely that the collar of his jacket was wet, and the commander's face was bloodless. Ben watched impassively as both practically scurried from the room.

Ben sat stock still until they had cleared the room and had boarded their shuttle, and then he bolted from his chair, directly in Rey's direction.

"What are you doing here? You were supposed to be gone by now!"


	20. Chapter 20

Right on cue, Finn's voice squelched through Rey's communicator. Ben ripped it out of her hand and growled, "I'll get her out on my shuttle. Once they make the jump to light speed, go!"

"What's wrong?"

Ben glanced down at Rey incredulously as he practically dragged her through the vestibule and out onto the platform. "Right now, they are scrambling to get out of the system before they incur any more of my wrath. I guarantee that within the hour, they will drop out of light speed to reconfigure their sensors, detect if I actually did proceed to Kerst, report to Hux, and wait for new orders. In all likelihood, they will be too focused on me to notice the Falcon slipping out of the system at the same time. We have a very small window to get off this sinkhole and out of the system before Hux orders them to turn around and tear me out of the sky."

Once they were on Ben's shuttle, he dropped into the pilot's seat, and his hands flew over the console to initiate the take take-off sequence. Rey's eyes skimmed over the console and noticed that many of the controls were in a completely different configuration than on the Falcon. These were clustered so that a single person could more comfortably pilot the craft, unlike the Falcon, where she and Chewie often reached across one another to maneuver the ship.

She slid awkwardly into the second seat as Ben piloted them out of the lower atmosphere. As he punched in calculations for the jump to light speed, she asked, "What are we going to do now?"

"As you are so fond of telling me," Ben engaged the hyperdrive, "if I take off with you, Finn will be furious. I can't say the ire of a Rebel storm trooper concerns me much, but it seems to bother you." Ben flicked his eyes up at her in mild irritation. "I'm sending the Falcon our destination coordinates."

 _Thank you._

"Hmph. I was already planning to continue to Kerst. My flight plan indicated that I would be making an inspection there before returning to the fleet. The Supreme Leader doesn't rearrange his schedule just because General Hux decides he's displeased with me." Ben glanced up at the row of switches above his chair. His tone was light and casual, but Rey felt the undercurrent of resentment and banked anger through their bond. "Quite the contrary."

Rey's brows drew down. "We didn't discuss going there."

Ben settled back into the deep chair and shrugged. "I hadn't intended to meet you there. It's uninhabited aside from a small First Order mining operation, so there's no native population, no one to negotiate with. The mining output from the moon has stopped entirely, and comms have gone dead, so it's entirely First Order business. Since my official purpose in coming all the way out here is to pull noncompliant systems back into line, it's a logical stop."

"How far is it?"

Ben turned and faced the console again, scrolling through the flight plan calculations. "Not far. Five hours maybe. The strong magnetic field on the planet creates significant interference with sensors, so it will be easy for the Millennium Falcon to slip though the shields right behind me without being detected."

When Rey didn't respond immediately, Ben glanced up to see her stifling a yawn against the back of her hand. She felt Ben tamp down a flutter of nervousness, but he pulled it back quickly. "There's some things I need to . . ." Ben looked away and his hands travelled over the console idly. "You should rest."

Ben stood and started to exit the cockpit, but Rey caught his hand. _I'm glad I'm with you_.

Ben bent and pressed a kiss into her hair, and he hesitated long enough to breathe her in. _Try to rest_.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Rey woke to semi-darkness wrapped in a luxuriously soft, heavy blanket on a wide bunk. She stretched and was surprised at how comfortable she was. Ben sat in a narrow pool of cool light, an ancient book open on his lap.

"How long have I slept?"

Ben marked his place in the book and glanced up. "Not long. I just moved you about an hour ago. I thought you'd be more comfortable here."

"I am. I wouldn't have thought the quarters in a First Order shuttle would be so nice."

Ben shrugged. "I'm the Supreme Leader, and this is my personal shuttle. You'd be surprised how anxious subordinates are to please when they are terrified of you."

Rey suppressed a grin at his wry tone. _No doubt_. In the stark shadows created by the small pendant light above him, Ben looked older and wrung out. "Have you slept?"

Ben tossed the book aside on the low table beside his chair, trying not to meet her gaze. "You were in the only bunk."

 _Come lay with me_. Ben froze, and although he'd pulled a thin barrier up between them while she slept, Rey could feel it tremble as Ben's feelings tumbled against it. She pressed gently against his consciousness. _Why are you hiding your feelings from me?_

Ben clasped his hands and leaned his elbows on his knees, refusing to look at Rey. He tried to purge his thoughts from any emotion and answered evenly, _There are things I want that I don't want you to see_.

Rey sat up and drew the blanket around her. _Why?_ She softened her tone and continued gently, _I already know what you feel. It seeps through the bond sometimes when you don't even realize it. I can feel it when you look at me_. Ben's head dropped lower between his shoulders _. Sometimes, my dreams taste the same way your thoughts do, and I think our minds must be connected even then._ "I've come to realize you are right, you know."

Ben's voice was low, hoarse. "About what?"

"We both need to let the past die. What stands between us makes everything else irrelevant. The people who hurt us, the things that broke us, the things we thought we knew, the things we thought we wanted . . . none of it matters anymore. The person I was on Jakku is gone. I am still Rey, but I don't exist separate from you anymore.

"If you don't sleep well, I'm exhausted the next morning. When you are in pain, it burns beneath my skin" . . . _I feel how it fills you up inside when we touch. There is warmth between us; I don't think that is ever going to go away._

Ben spoke to the floor between his feet. "I know you feel it, but that's not the same as wanting it." _I won't ask you for something you don't want to give me_. He looked up, and she could see the turmoil in his eyes. "This isn't like the times before through the bond. You're here, now," _and I'm afraid if I touch you, I won't be able to stop_. Ben took a shuddering breath. "I need this—what there is between us. The space between our minds is more like home to me than anywhere I've ever been. I need to feel you on the other side of my mind" _. . . more than I need the feel of you in my bed. I can't risk losing this_. Ben shook his head slowly. "I won't let our bond go silent again. If I hurt you, if I lose you . . . I'll lose my mind if you leave me in the cold and silence again."

Rey extended her hand. _Ben, come here_.

Reluctantly Ben rose and perched on the very edge of the bunk. He closed his eyes in pleasure when Rey laid her hand against his cheek, and through the barrier between them, shimmering and diaphanous, she could feel that the effort of not responding to her touch was shredding him inside.

 _This is who we are now. Where there were two, the Force has made one_. "All those years, I thought I was waiting for my family to come for me." Rey ran her hands through his hair and clasped them behind his neck. "I was really waiting for you."

Rey gently kissed Ben. At first his lips were tense against hers, but when she opened her feelings and allowed them to wash over his, Rey felt the barrier between them dissolve like mist, and he accepted her kisses with mounting desire. As the warmth between them intensified to something more, their bond allowed sensations and desires to resonate and echo between them. With each sigh, each caress, long carried burdens were put down, sorrows were laid to rest, doubts and fears allowed to take flight, and gaping wounds closed. Rey could not have imagined that the same man, capable of such rage and destruction as Kylo Ren was equally capable of trembling tenderness, solicitous to please.

By the time the Supreme Leader's shuttle dropped out of light speed and the autopilot established the preset orbit around Kerst, Kylo Ren, first and last knight of the Order of Ren, had perished at the hands of a common nobody from Jakku, a filthy scavenger. In his bed, Ben Solo dozed contentedly, the other half of his remade soul clasped tightly to his side and sharing her dreams with him.


	21. Chapter 21

Rey woke slowly to softly glowing light that emanated from within her. She stretched her consciousness and moved toward the light . . . and realized that it was Ben. He was incandescent. She stretched against his side and lifted her chin to plant a soft kiss against his neck. When she opened her eyes, she saw that his lips were curved in a smile of deepest contentment.

"You're happy."

Ben opened sleepy eyes and turned his face to look at her. "I'm . . . happy."

Rey rose on an elbow over him, and pushed his long tousled hair back from his face. "When was the last time that that happened?"

Ben ran a warm hand up her arm. "I don't know. Never, maybe. I'm happy now."

Rey spread her fingers across his chest and leaned down to kiss him, and she felt the light within her expand. As his kisses deepened, she felt a slow, hot desire start to unfurl within him, and she drew away reluctantly. "It's very late. The autopilot put us down on the surface hours ago. I should go."

"Not yet . . . there's something else I want to discuss with you before you go."

Although she still felt the light burn within him, it was suddenly tense, and nervous energy like tendrils of lightning danced along the edges. Rey sat up and drew the blanket around her, and when she released him, Ben turned away. He pressed his fingers against the shiny black wall beside the bunk, and a perfectly concealed compartment slid out silently. He plucked something out, and nudged the compartment with the back of his hand so that it slid silently back.

At first, Ben wouldn't look at her. "I love you . . . but I think that you know that." He glanced up, and Rey smiled back at him. She let her heart open to him wordlessly, so that he would feel her answer within him. He went on tentatively, "I want you to be my wife."

Rey smiled warmly, but couldn't help but remark, "That would be quite a feat, finding someone who would be willing to keep that secret."

Ben returned her smile briefly but continued tensely, "I know. I thought someone within the Rebellion might, or perhaps . . . my mother would consent."

Rey scooted closer to Ben. "Are you ready to face her after . . ." She allowed her words to trail off, and she searched his face, though he refused to look at her.

"No. I don't think I will ever be ready to face her, but I can think of no other way it could be done. I need to ask her to forgive me."

Rey ran a hand through his hair and down the length of his back, tipping her head in curiosity. "Why do you want this, Ben? We are already bound by the Force. You feel every beat of my heart and every breath as though they were your own. You already know that I am yours."

Ben turned his face to look at her, and his eyes were anguished. "For once in my life, I want something pure, something that I can be proud of. My entire life has been lived in the shadows." Ben cupped her face in a deep palm. "I need to be able to stand in the light and know that you aren't ashamed to be at my side." Ben doubted himself, and he turned away shaking his head. Rey felt his joy wither, his consciousness began to recede, and she felt cold when he withdrew his love. "I know what I am. I understand if you couldn't—"

Rey pulled him back defiantly. "When Death tried to claim us, I fought by your side, and together we turned away his blade. That was the first time Death came for us, but it won't be the last. In the darkness, in the light, and in the shadows between them, whenever he comes for you, he will always find me at your side."

Ben pressed his eyes shut. _I know . . . but will you consent to be bound to me? In the eyes of everyone that you love?_

 _Yes_. Ben pulled her into an embrace, pressing a kiss against her mouth and the entire weight of his love for her through their bond. "Mmmmph!" She fell back against his pillow giggling beneath the onslaught of his ardor and his weight.

Through the bond, she felt something else mingled with his love and joy and stirring desire. _I love that sound . . . no one else laughs for me_.

Ben drew back and looked at her, stroking his thumb over the contours of her face. Rey smiled warmly into the depths of his eyes and reached out to touch him through their bond. _That's because no one else loves you the way your wife does_.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Rey shivered as she trudged through the acid snow. Ben had wrapped a cowl around her face and neck to prevent the wind from insinuating the burning ice against her skin. Only a tiny fraction of her tinted goggles peeked out of the headscarf. She knew Ben's thoughts followed her steps as she trudged through the storm back to the Falcon.

 _Come back to bed._

Rey felt her skin flush hot, and couldn't repress her smile. _I can't! You know there will be no end of questions when I get back as it is_.

 _Come back to bed._ This time there was a soft growl beneath his thought, though she knew he didn't intend it to sound like a command.

Rey stopped and looked back at his shuttle, nearly a quarter of a mile away below the ridge where the Falcon had landed, and she allowed a mixture of exasperation and amusement to flow back to him. _Go to sleep! I'll see you later._

 _It won't be the same through the force bond, and I'd rather see you now_. She could tell from his tone that he was enjoying teasing her.

Rey rolled her eyes as she trudged up the ramp into the Falcon, stomping the frozen acid from her boots. Before closing the bay door, she forced a blast of air to push the crystals out of the crevices of the ramp. As she unwrapped the cowl, shedding crystals of acid everywhere, she answered, laughing, "I'm in now. It's too cold, and I'm not coming back!"

"Welcome back."

Rey wasn't surprised that it was Rose rather than Finn who greeted her, with eyes like a hawk and arms crossed in wary condemnation. After Eurillis, Rose had stopped voicing her hearty disapproval of the hours Rey spent alone in Ben's company, but Rose's disappointment was clear whenever Rey looked at her. Rey knew that tonight, Rose had come as Finn's emissary, being too angry with her and Ben to greet her himself.

The muscles of Rey's face ached, both wanting to smile at the glow of Ben's pleasure, still pouring through their bond, and wanting to discard her broad smile for Rose's sake. She took a deep breath. "Thank you. I'm glad to be back."

 _Really?_ Ben teased through the bond.

Rey closed her eyes to stop herself from rolling her eyes at him. _You know I'd rather be there with you_.

 _Then come back to—_

 _Oh, shut up!_ Rey snapped the bond closed between them, but she could genuinely still hear Ben laughing from the other side.

Flustered and seeking something to anchor her mind away from Ben, Rey toed several rubber mats and some deep trays that she usually used for scrubbing parts arrayed on the floor of the cargo bay. "What's this?"

"Finn said that when landing parties returned the base, there was a processing area where they sometimes had to be hosed down with decontaminant. We explored a bit outside at first, but that frozen acid sticks to everything. When we came in, Chewie noticed right away that if the snow melted against the Falcon's fuselage and ramps, the acid started to chew right through it. Finn set all of this up to try to contain it right next to the cargo bay door. Stay right there and take off your boots and coat."

Rey turned her back to Rose while she slid out of her boots, careful not to touch them with bare skin. The force bond was tickling at her mind. The substance of the bond was different now, and she could feel that it didn't have the same kind of density that it once had had. When she had slammed it shut on Ben, Rey felt that it had immediately started to ebb, as though seeking equilibrium between herself and him. As it slid slowly back, Rey noticed that Ben's mirth had exhausted itself, and instead a sense of longing and warmth permeated the bond, intense enough to leave her physically trembling.

"What took you so long to answer our hails?"

Rey looked up guiltily and shrugged. "Ben switched off the comms. He thought it might draw suspicion if the signal was detected immediately after we landed. We talk to one another all the time through the force bond, but it was a welcome change to be able to speak in person. He's very isolated, but he can drop the act he has to put on for the Order when we're together." Rey sat her boots on a tray to drip. "Honestly, I guess I was enjoying his company and lost track of the time."

Rey drew off Ben's massively oversized gloves and tossed them aside on an insulated rack to dry. When she extended her consciousness to Rose, Rey could feel that Rose's prickliness was driven entirely by concern for Rey's wellbeing, grudging respect, and reluctant friendship. Rey padded in thick stockings across the floor to where Rose leaned against some empty crates. "I know you don't like him—"

"Like?"

Rey frowned sympathetically. "—trust him," Rey conceded, "but you have to admit that he has been better than his word this whole time."

In the past week, under the guise of freighters bringing supplies to Eurillis following the destruction of the reeducation facility, the handful of surviving Rebels had successfully been settled there and were beginning to reform their ranks with the men of Eurillis.

"Hmph." Rose picked up the coolant module she had been reconfiguring from the crate in front of her. "I think we are all just worried that that is for your benefit, not because he has been miraculously reformed."

Rey laid her hand on Rose's and answered, "The light was always there inside him fighting to get out. I just helped him find his path."

When she didn't answer, Rey followed Rose's gaze down to where her own hand rested on Rose's and silently cursed herself. This wasn't how she had wanted this to happen.

"What is that?"

Rose's eyes were riveted on the band of red crystal in its channel of steel around Rey's finger. Rey's mouth was suddenly dry, and she quietly answered, "A gift."

"What is it?"

"It's synthetic kyber crystal set into—"

Rose's eyes flashed up angrily at Rey. "I grew up in a mining colony; I know a kyber crystal when I see one. Why is it around your finger?"

Rey strained to keep her voice neutral. "As I said, a gift."

Rose snatched up Rey's hand and held it up so that the harsh light of the cargo bay filtered through the crystal. She turned Rey's hand and whistled, impressed when she saw that it wrapped around Rey's finger seamlessly. "That's no ordinary crystal. It's absolutely pure, perfectly formed into this shape. It's flawless. You could purchase a continent on Canto Bight with a piece of kyber like that and get change back."

Rey didn't respond, but gently extracted her fingers from Rose's grasp. She chewed the side of her lower lip, waiting for Rose to reach her final conclusion. She swallowed hard, nearly choking on the anxiety and fear that welled up inside of her now that she had to face the scrutiny of the other people she loved. Ben vibrated with tension on the other side of their bond, fearing that she would renounce him.

Rose's expression softened, almost pityingly. "Not an ordinary gift, then." Rey answered with the barest shake of her head. "You've promised yourself to Kylo Ren."

Rey couldn't stop the tear that slipped down her cheek. "I've promised myself to Ben Solo." She searched Rose's eyes, imploring her to understand. "I love him."

Rey was surprised when Rose wrapped her arms around her. When she laid her head on Rose's shoulder, she noticed that Rose's comforting clean scent mixed with the smells of machinist's oil and some kind of adhesive. "I know you do. I just hope it's enough—I hope it doesn't destroy us all."


	22. Chapter 22

The silence was cold shrapnel. Rey sat at the table, running her finger around the rim of her cup, actively avoiding looking at Finn. When she did glance up at him, his eyes bored into her over crossed arms. Rey didn't need to read his mind to feel the fury and disappointment that rolled off Finn, particularly every time he took another disgusted glance at the band of kyber crystal around her finger. Every few minutes, he would open his mouth to speak, but was forestalled every time by a filthy look from Rose.

He tried again, but this time, he was stopped by Rose's adamant, "No."

He glanced at Rose in annoyance and plunged on anyway. "Why the hell are we going back to Eurillis?"

Rey drew a slow deep breath. "That's where the rest of the Rebellion is. We need to regroup." Rey glanced up at Finn, and his face was painted with an almost comical degree of skepticism. Rey looked down at the remnants of the ration wafers she'd been crumbling nervously between her fingers. "I want to speak to Leia in person."

Finn snorted as he rose abruptly from the table. "I'm sure you do."

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

 _He's not going to let us in_.

Rey had left the Millennium Falcon nearly a quarter of an hour earlier and waited for Ben in the newly liberated wood of Eurillis. When he appeared to her, she could see in his overly erect posture, clenched fists, and thinned lips the tension that ricocheted through their bond. Rey could feel that he both longed for her touch and yet felt as though he'd shatter upon contact, so she tried to reassure him through their bond. Now, as they looked up into the cockpit of the Falcon, she could almost feel Ben's heart beating a path through his ribs. Chewie looked impassively down at them, and as she felt the Wookie's sense of betrayal wash over them both, she felt his eyes skip over her and rest sadly on Ben. Through their bond, she felt Ben's soft sigh of regret.

 _He loves you like a son. Even that day, he couldn't bring himself to kill you._ Ben shifted subtly behind her, and she felt his consciousness squirm painfully with shame. _He's going to let us in_.

Ben didn't answer, and instead gifted her with one of his earliest memories. The flickering glow of light speed bathed the cockpit, and in Chewbacca's arms was curled a small, mop head of a boy, a blunt nose protruding from glossy black waves. As he sucked his thumb industriously, the plump fingers of both sticky hands were wound deep into the Wookie's fur. The image changed, and she saw the boy but a few years older, watching Chewbacca perform a repair on the Falcon from a bucket suspended on a cable. The image changed again, and she saw Han and Leia dancing together in the cargo hold, Ben held aloft in Han's arms and pressed between their bodies. He squealed with delight when Han dropped his head and shook it vigorously, tickling his son on face and neck with his whipping hair.

 _This was my home. I thought in all the galaxy, there was no finer place. No place safer. I was loved here . . . and then one day, the three pillars of my life left me behind with a man I didn't know. He had a stern face and cold eyes full of expectations and disappointment. He shaved my hair off and made me wear rough clothes that didn't fit properly. He taught me to stand and to breathe, to meditate and to fight, but I wept for them and my home for more nights that I could count._

Finn stepped into the cockpit and murmured something to Chewie, and Rey dropped her eyes. She couldn't bear to look at them, her own sense of guilt and shame building within her. _We don't have to do this_.

 _I want this. I want to honor you. . . . I want to make amends._

Rey took a deep breath, rolled her shoulders back, and lifted her chin. _We could make them—_

 _No. It needs to be their choice. Besides, I don't think it would work on a Wookie anyway._

Finn crossed his arms and glared down at Rey, his sense of disappointment and betrayal even keener than Chewie's. They'd probably have stood there the rest of the day glaring at one another had Rose not charged into the cockpit. Rey hadn't caught what she had said, but Finn flinched visibly, even from this distance. He obviously was the primary target of her tongue lashing, and when he glanced at Rey, Finn looked deeply ashamed. Ben apparently was listening, and Rey heard his soft snort of amusement behind her. Rose pointed a short, blunt finger at first the man, then the Wookie, and then gestured angrily out the cockpit window before stomping back out of sight. Chewie looked in amazement down at Finn, who shrugged in embarrassed defeat. Moments later, the cargo bay door creaked down to the ground.

As Rey ascended the ramp, followed closely by Ben, she found Rose at the top, resonating with annoyance. When Rey lifted a brow in silent query, Rose rolled her eyes and replied with disgust, "Idiots."

x-x-x-x-x-x

They found Leia in the quarters she had shared with Han. Rey was surprised to see a proper bed bolted to the floor, and the widowed general sat on its edge, pawing through a carved wooden box of remembrances. When they entered, Leia looked up in surprise, and her eyes narrowed subtly when they fell on her son.

"What is he doing here? He doesn't belong here."

Ben stepped around Rey and knelt at his mother's feet, unable to meet her eyes. "Mother. I've come home. I've come to ask for your forgiveness."

Leia glared down at her son's cascading black locks, and she rolled unspoken words around in her mouth as though their taste was vile. Finally, a single venomous word escaped. "Why?"

"Because you are my mother."

"Why did you take him from me?"

Rey could see Ben's broad shoulders tremble with a shuddering breath, but he was otherwise etched in stone, his head bent painfully low. "Because I loved him. Because when I saw myself in his eyes, I loathed what I had become, and I could not bear that he loved me anyway. Because . . ."

Rey felt the truth that Ben dreaded to speak. _Tell her. Tell her all of it_.

"Because when he looked at me, it made me feel like a child, and I hated that I still needed him to love me. Because I'd have given anything for most of my life if he would have come to take me home, but when he finally came for me, it was too late. Because I didn't deserve his love, and I didn't deserve to be saved."

Ben had laid his soul bare to her, and he waited nervously through her stony silence.

"For no reason at all, then." Leia's words were ice, and Rey felt them cut Ben to the core.

Rey felt seething anger unfurl in Ben, and he raised his head slowly to answer her defiantly, "Because I believed that my love for him was what held me back from the Dark Side."

"Because Snoke would have killed him if he hadn't."

When Leia snapped her eyes up to meet Rey's, she saw the same defiance in the girl that she saw in her son. "Why are you here, Rey? Surely the mighty Kylo Ren doesn't need you to hold his hand while he begs forgiveness from his mother."

Rey opened her mouth to answer, but Ben interrupted softly, "She's here because I love her."

"Oh, Ben, you don't know what that means."

"She has taught me. I want her to be my wife; with your help, we can mend our family." Ben glanced nervously at Rey and plunged on, "You have the authority—"

Rey saw the moment when Leia's eyes darkened with the realization of what her son, her husband's murderer, was about to ask of her. She stood, and in her rage, the she dwarfed her son with her tiny frame. "No." Leia glanced up at Rey with disgust. "With all you have taken from me, why would I give her to you? The last time I sent someone to you that I loved, you slaughtered them!"

"I loved him too." Ben's words were spoken so softly in his rumbling tenor that he was barely audible.

"And you." With a withering glance at Ben, Leia turned her attention to Rey. "Why would you want to be bound to someone who doesn't understand how to love anybody?"

Through their bond, Rey felt Ben's regret and desolation bubble like tar. Though Leia had stepped past him dismissively, he still knelt where he had fallen at his mother's feet, and a fine tremble ran through him. Rey was incensed. "He came here to ask your forgiveness! He knows he did wrong. He knows he did terrible things." She flung her arm out at Ben. "It's tearing him apart. Can't you see it's been tearing him apart?"

Leia flicked her eyes at her son, and for a moment, Rey saw the doubt beneath her anger. "You didn't answer my question," she growled.

Rey took a deep steadying breath and drew herself up taller. "I love Ben Solo. He's the only person who has ever needed me. He could have let Snoke kill me, but Ben risked everything—everything he had ever worked for and wanted, things he had killed for—he gave up everything for me. You don't know him. Not the man he became after you abandoned—"

Leia's eyes narrowed, and she spat, "Abandoned! You have no idea—"

Rey surprised Ben by lancing into his mind through the bond and seizing upon memories he'd tried all his life to bury. When she saw the writhing agony that laid hidden there, Rey's vision went crimson. She lunged into Leia's face. "I know him! I share his mind; his memories are mine now. I have relived every night he wept for you, and I remember the birthdays that went unmarked except by his tears of disappointment when you couldn't be bothered to even send him a message—"

 _Rey, I don't want her to know—_

Rey ignored Ben and closed on Leia, her temper very nearly out of hand, and Leia had to take a step back. Rey's cheeks were wet, and she scrubbed a hand across her face to smear away tears of rage. "Where were you when Snoke was using the Force to crush every bone in your son's hands?" Leia's mouth was clamped shut, but her lips trembled, and tears welled in her eyes. "Snoke beat him—he burned him and starved him and tortured him, but where were you? Snoke shattered his bones and remade them over and over again to teach him the meaning of pain. When he cried out for you, how could you not hear him? You're a Skywalker—surely you felt his pain!"

Distantly, Rey felt Ben's heart hammering and heard his ragged breathing. _Rey, stop!_

Rey wasn't done yet, and she took another step, bearing down on Leia. "Where was your legendary brother when Snoke made Ben slaughter his surviving padawans? When Snoke tried to break Ben's soul by forcing him to annihilate those he loved?" Rey took another step, and Leia was forced to retreat further, pressing her back against the curving wall of the Falcon. Rey could feel power sizzle off her skin. "The only thing he has really wanted his entire life was for someone to love him the way Han loved you, but even now, when he comes to you on his knees and begs, you won't let him have it!"

"Enough!" Ben's hands wrapped around her shoulders with enough pressure to let her know he'd not be ignored again, though not enough to hurt her. Rey panted in rage. As she came back to herself, she saw her hands pressed to either side of the curving wall trapping Leia, and they were wreathed in dancing tendrils of lightning.

She allowed Ben to gently pull her back from his mother, and he wrapped his arms tenderly around her. He winced and groaned softly between clenched teeth as her lightning crackled over his black woolen sleeves, but he did not release her. When the lightning had fizzled out, Ben lowered his lips to Rey's ear and repeated quietly, "Enough," before planting a kiss on her temple.

Rey looked up at him, and when she saw the anguish in his eyes, her anger drained away. He cupped his hands around her face and whispered through their bond, _You were right. I don't need this—I have everything I need already._

With a mighty effort, he pulled his emotions back behind the newly permeable barrier between them. Ben turned to Leia, his feet shoulder width apart and his hands clasped behind his back, and he addressed her formally, his face serene. "General Organa . . . Mother." The word fell from his lips as though it was made of gold, precious and rare and heavy. "Thank you for granting me an audience. I wish you luck in continuing to rebuild the Rebel Alliance. I trust you will inform Rey if you need any further assistance. It is my greatest wish that, in time, we can speak again and find a way to reach an accord." Leia's mouth opened slightly, as though she wanted to speak, but was unable to find the words. A tense silence stretched between them as Ben waited. Rey could feel a tiny spark of hope in his heart tremble, but then extinguish when the moment passed. He nodded curtly. "May the Force be with you."

Ben bowed gracefully to his mother, and though he did not look at Rey as he turned to go, she felt his love pouring through their bond. Ray glared daggers at Leia, but she seemed frozen in place, watching the hem of Ben's cloak disappear as he wound his way through the Falcon's corridors.

 _Ben, wait._

 _I can find my way out._ Ben's weak irony trickled through the bond. _The first six years of my life were spent here. It hasn't really changed all that much._

Rey hesitated but then followed him down the corridor. _If you want me,_ _I'll come. There's no point in stay—_

 _Of course I want you, but you're safer there. Besides, if you come tonight, it will look like I forced you to come away with me._

 _I want to come away with you._

Rey felt Ben's gratitude. _Not tonight. I need some time—_

 _Of course. Ben?_

 _Mmmm?_

 _I love you._

 _I know._

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Though no one was there to see her, the formidable General Leia Organa cowered against the curving wall of her husband's quarters beside the bed she'd refused to join him in for decades. Minutes passed before she was able to release the breath that she had held while Rey had poured out her rage. When Leia gasped for a breath, she could almost smell the warm fragrance of her son's skin. It brought back the feel of his hair against her cheek and his moist breath against his neck when she rocked him to sleep to the rhythm of the hyperdrive.

When Leia closed her eyes, the tears that had threatened to fall finally slid down her lined cheeks. She reached out her feelings, searching for her son, finally returned home, but Ben had already gone. Instead, Leia felt his loyal, selfless lover thrashing around her quarters, pacing, trying to decide what to do in the face of their bitter rejection.

Leia reached out further and further, hoping that wherever Ben was, he would still be able to feel her. She gathered her will tightly together and flung every shred of her strength into the glowing tendril within herself that she had always suspected was her own personal thread of the Force. When her will touched the thread of light, she had the merest glimpse of the full power of the Force. The future and the past stood side by side, and she could see patterns, rhythms and refrains that followed bloodlines and alliances over many generations. She felt souls like sparks, too numerous to be counted, and saw the vast web that twisted between them. Amongst them all, two souls weren't sparks—they were conflagrations, and she set herself to chase after the most distant one.

Praying that it wasn't too late, that the distance wasn't too vast, her soul sped toward the dancing flame, and her lips murmured as though she'd already reached him. "I forgave you before he even fell. Please, forgive me. Forgive yourself."

With her last breath, Leia followed the path illuminated before her, hoping that through the Force, she would finally carry her love and reconciliation to her son herself.


	23. Chapter 23

By the time Ben pulled his consciousness back to his shuttle, the autopilot was nearly ready to drop him out of light speed. He secured the door to his quarters with a pang. Rey's scent still hung in the chamber, and with his mother's rejection, he hungered for Rey's nearness. He folded away his memories of their time together during the flight to Kerst like precious silk, and laid them away at the back of his mind to enjoy again later. His position in the First Order was too precarious, and he couldn't allow himself to be distracted, not even by something so exquisite and fulfilling.

On the other side of their bond, he could feel Rey raging. He knew that the friction between herself and Finn was taxing, and now with the condemnation of his mother, whom she so admired, she was deeply conflicted about why she was even there. Ben knew that it would be too easy to tip the scale in his favor, but he remained silent nonetheless. From the moment they had touched on Ahch-To, Ben had known that one way or another, Rey would come to him. He had assumed at the time that she would come as a captive. A part of him had hoped Rey could even be tempted to be his student. He never would have dreamed that she would come willingly as his wife. He wanted Rey to decide to come on her own, without his coaxing. Ben knew the satisfaction of having her by his side would be tainted if she felt herself coerced.

As the autopilot started the final approach to the dreadnaught, Ben sat down at the console. There was already a light flashing indicating that he had been hailed. He punched in his personal access code before answering the hail.

"What is it?"

"Supreme Leader. General Hux requests an audience upon your arrival."

Ben took a deep breath and made an effort not to roll his eyes in annoyance. He should have expected nothing less. He stretched his shoulders and dropped his chin to his chest, reaching within himself to draw out the veil of Kylo Ren. Ben wasn't sure who he was anymore, but he was certain that he wasn't Kylo Ren. Pulling back on that persona after his brief time with Rey felt like pulling back on cold wet clothes . . . it disgusted him.

Ben opened the channel to the dreadnaught again. "Tell him I will speak to him immediately upon my return, and I will expect a full report. I had expected Urobos Prime to be subdued by my return."

"Yes, Supreme Leader."

Ben slumped back into the deep chair. He honestly couldn't care less about the status of the conquest of Urobos Prime, but Kylo Ren, in his jealous rivalry with Hux, would have cared intensely. He'd have been eager for the opportunity to criticize the general. Ben switched the shuttle back into autopilot when the dreadnaught's tractor beam locked on and started bringing it in. Idly, he brought back up the past several days' authentic dispatches, and flicked through them.

In truth, Hux had done a masterful job of maneuvering the fleet into exploiting the few weaknesses in the planet's defenses. The Supreme Leader . . . Ben sat up, a thought occurring to him. The Supreme Leader would have been pleased at Hux's progress. Perhaps he could find a way to manage Hux without the usual hostilities. Ben scanned the latest report for casualty numbers and pulled up a map that indicated the current locations of the Order's fleet.

Ben flipped open the comms again. "Tell General Hux that he will be received in the Supreme Leader's audience hall as is customary." He flicked off the comms before the helmsman could respond.

Ben stood and braced his hands on the console, and looked down into his own reflection in its shiny black surface. "I'm the Supreme Leader. It's time he was reminded of that."

As Ben disembarked, a tension began to gather under his skin and in the air around him. A clotting of the air, a knotting of power around him.

 _Rey? Is that you?_

Rey's thoughts came back immediately, and he could feel her consternation as well. _No, but I feel it too_. She paused, and he felt her probe his consciousness. _It's much more intense on your end, though_.

As he strode down the ramp from the shuttle, Ben tried to brush off the sensation, but it was only becoming more and more intense. He nodded at the contingent of storm troopers that had been ranged to greet him. A lieutenant of no particular commendation stood at their head, and she opened her mouth to speak as he approached. Ben silenced her with a glance, and she withered visibly. Instead, she fell into step behind him, waiting to be acknowledged.

As Ben strode across the landing bay, his skin began to crawl. Ben had nearly reached the center of the bay, directly below the observation deck, when he was struck with a tremendous blast of power, slamming him to the floor. A sensation of searing heat, bone deep longing, and sweet golden light descended on him. His first panicked thought was that Rey had been attacked, but when he extended his consciousness to her, she was there, steady and bright in his mind, but suddenly alert and worried.

Ben levered himself off the floor, and glanced around the landing bay. The bay was gone. Instead, he laid on the floor of the Millennium Falcon, his mother laying inches from him, her eyes imploring.

 _Ben . . ._

Ben reached out to her, and his fingers shook. _Mother_. He looked down at her, only inches away.

For many years, when he closed his eyes before sleep, he had seen these limpid, brown doe eyes staring back at him. As a lonely padawan, he had imagined her there with him in the dark, as she was whenever he couldn't sleep on the Falcon, her long chestnut waves loose on the pillow and her eyes reflecting the faint glimmer of indicator lights. Her arms were comfort and solace, and when Leia snuggled Ben into slumber as a child, he could imagine no sweeter peace.

Ben remembered the things she had whispered to him in the dark to lull him to sleep. She would tell him stories, and sometimes she would rub her nose against his. She would sing old Alderaanian lullabies and legends and teach him finger games. His mother would curl herself into his trundle and point out the names of the stars and constellations over Alderaan-that-was that she had drawn on the ceiling of his room with phosphorescent paint. In a fit of homesickness, Ben had once replicated the star chart on the ceiling of his quarters at his uncle's temple. Many nights, repeating the names of the stars was the only thing that had allowed him to sleep.

In his mind, his mother was evergreen, but so close for the first time since childhood, he now saw that decades of worries had lined her face. Her eyes were precisely the same, and though he couldn't believe it, after all he had done, they still held the same love for him that they always had.

 _Ben . . . My sweet Ben_. Leia smiled, and Ben felt as though all the love and joy in the galaxy had been compressed into her eyes and flowed through him like water. She reached out and caressed his cheek with the back of her fingers. _Your hair is too long, but Rey must like it anyway_. Leia smoothed a lock of his hair over an ear and smiled tremulously. _To know that you came back to me in the end was my life's greatest joy_. _Thank you_.

 _Mother_ . . . Ben's lip quivered, and he laid his hand on her cheek. _I am so very—_

Leia smiled sadly. _I know. I forgave you before he even fell, and so did he. Please, forgive me . . . for everything. Never a day passed when either of us stopped loving and missing you. It tore us apart, and it destroyed you. Forgive us. Forgive yourself_.

 _I love you_.

Leia smiled warmly. _Take_ _care of Rey for me. She needs you—they all do. Tell your wife_ . . . Leia smiled sadly again. _Tell her she was right. The Force will be with you always, and so will I_. With difficulty, Leia pushed herself up off the floor and kissed Ben on the cheek, and he closed his eyes, savoring at last his mother's long awaited love.

When her lips left his skin, Ben laid his hand upon her kiss, that it would remain. When he opened his eyes, he saw the lieutenant knelt beside him, her eyes wide with concern.

"Supreme Leader, are you alright?"

Ben dropped his hand to the deck of the landing bay and gaped around him. He was the epicenter of what must have been a great blast. The assembled troops had been swept to the ground, and deep grooves had been ground into the floor where light fighters had been blasted back, a few now resting on their sides against the wall of the bay instead of on their moorings. He heard the doors to the landing bay open, and Hux entered the bay smugly, two columns of storm troopers jogging behind him to secure the bay.

 _Ben?_ Rey's voice was shaky on the other end of their bond. He glimpsed her flattened on the floor of the Falcon, a hand pressed to her cheek.

 _My mother is gone. Be careful—they might think we killed her. I can't talk to you now._ Ben closed their connection as securely as he could, and he felt her alarm and concern crackle at its edges.

Ben scrambled to his feet before Hux could have the pleasure of looming over him sprawled on the filthy decking. Wishing for not the first time that a mask still covered his features, Ben instead drew up what remained of the tattered veil of Kylo Ren's persona before Hux could glimpse anything else behind his eyes.

"Supreme Leader." Hux sneered up at Ben insolently. "I understand there has been some sort of . . . incident?"

Casting frantically around in his mind for an explanation for the destruction around him that didn't make him appear to be unstable, Ben decided upon a version of the truth. "General Leia Organa has died. She used her last moments to focus a direct attack upon me."

Hux lifted an eyebrow skeptically. "I wasn't aware that she was gifted with the Force."

Ben was careful to keep his voice level, though beneath the thin veneer, a deep sadness was starting to settle into his heart. His mother's passing had left a gaping hole in the fabric of the Force, and he felt its ripples keenly. "She was a Skywalker. Though Luke Skywalker offered many times to train her in the ways of the Force, she adamantly refused, preferring to skulk in the shadows with rebel scum." He made a show of brushing the filth of the hangar off his immaculate black sleeve with distaste. "Such a waste. She must have held an enormous amount of raw power to have launched such a powerful attack from such a distance."

Hux's face crumpled with suspicion. "Have you received intelligence about the whereabouts of the surviving Rebels?"

Ben glanced down at Hux with haughty indifference. "There is no longer a Rebel Alliance to be concerned with. I have no doubt that they are squabbling somewhere in some dank little hole. I am far more concerned with the conquest of this system, which appears to be somewhat behind schedule. Is that not correct?" Ben flexed his hands menacingly.

Hux glanced askance. "Supreme Leader—"

"As I thought." Ben gazed appraisingly around the hangar as troops scrambled to set the light fighters back upright. "Despite your attempts to deceive me, the newly made Commander Gorsach's dispatches indicate that you have been struggling to overcome the tiered multiphasic shield grid that Urobos Prime has constructed."

Hux's eyes narrowed and he shifted his jaw uncomfortably before answering. "That is correct, Supreme Leader."

"I understand that you have recalled the entire fleet, not just the divisions in this quadrant?"

Hux's lips were knotted, and an angry flush had started to rise from his collar. "Yes," he hissed from between clenched teeth, "that is correct, Supreme Leader."

Ben lifted his chin a fraction of an inch. "I think that was wise. With the entire fleet assembled and ranged around the shield, coordinated attacks should permit individual squadrons to penetrate the tiers of the shield as they fall."

Hux drew his brows together and his mouth popped open comically. "You are pleased, Supreme Leader?"

Now that he had Hux's full attention and had soft-footed him, Ben began walking purposefully towards the lift. "Your extensive experience in designing innovative battle strategies has always been crucial to the First Order's success. That is why I entrusted you to with this task. I had hoped that you would prove yourself both competent and trustworthy." Ben glared down at Hux. "Imagine my disappointment when you rewarded my leniency with a poorly veiled effort at treason." Ben strode into the waiting lift and turned to face Hux, who had blanched. "Under the circumstances, I will give you until 800 hours to reconsider your communications strategy. I would hate to think that Commander Gorsach was complicit with your treachery."

"Thank you, Supreme Leader."

Ben placed his finger on the lift keys, but did not press one. As though the thought had just occurred to him, he continued, "Afterwards, I will expect you to present Supreme Leader Snoke's personal guest."

Hux blinked. "Personal guest?"

Ben smiled maliciously. "The one that was picked up by the Inferno, and was subsequently transferred to the Supremacy. Surely you recall, since you approved the transfer?"

"Ah, yes. Of course, Supreme Leader."

"You have until 800 hours to clean up your lies, general. Surely you did not think that I was stupid enough to wade through your fabrications and sortie reports to find the real dispatches, did you?"

Hux opened his mouth to respond, but couldn't force the words past his tongue. Though his face was pale, his neck was blotchy with anger, his ears crimson.

"You would do well to recall that your allegiance is to me know, general. I will not be so merciful should you consider another act of petty treason." 


	24. Chapter 24

"Finn! FINN!" Rey burst out of her quarters and nearly ran Rose down. She grabbed Rose by the arms. "Where's Finn?"

Rose's eyes were wide. "Still sulking in the cockpit. Why?"

"Leia is dead. Come on!"

As Rey pounded through the corridor of the Falcon, she heard Rose panting behind her, taking an extra step to every three of Rey's. "What? Did Kylo Ren kill her?" Rose slammed to a stop. "Did you kill her?"

Rey spun. "No! Of course not!" Frustrated by Rose's distrust, Rey continued her headlong dash towards the cockpit.

Seconds later, she heard Rose pounding after her. "No to which one? He didn't kill her or you didn't kill her?"

"Who's dead?" Alerted by their raised voices, Finn stepped out of the cockpit.

Rose and Rey spoke together.

"Leia's dead."

"They killed the general!"

Rey shot Rose a filthy look. "Leia's dead. We did not kill her."

Finn looked between the two of them with disgust before charging back down the corridor to Han and Leia's quarters. Finn burst in and looked around. It took a few moments in the low light for him to spot it, but sure enough, the general's simple, elegant gown was pooled on the floor beside the bed, her jewelry arranged carefully atop the fabric.

Finn rounded on Rey. "What have you done?"

Rey held her hands up in defense from where she stood in the doorway. "It wasn't us. Ben and I spoke to Leia, but he left, and I've been in my quarters since."

"Then how did you know she was dead?" Rose's face was clenched in distrust.

Rey shook her head sadly. "Leia was still weak from the attack on the cruiser and the escape from Crait. I don't think she ever really recovered. With the loss of her brother . . ." She shrugged, "she was hanging on by a thread. I think the only thing that really kept her going was the hope that Ben would come back to her."

Finn glared at Rey resentfully. "Yeah, he came back . . . and slaughtered her."

Rey rolled her eyes. "Look around. Is this what it looks like when Kylo Ren kills someone?" She folded her arms and looked pointedly at Finn. "If Ben and I had killed her, you would know it."

Finn lifted his brows and tipped his head in reluctant agreement. He glanced through the room. Everything was in place, there was no sign of struggle, and everything seemed . . . peaceful.

Rose squeezed through the doorway around Rey and sat down on the bed. Noticing the box of remembrances, she closed it solemnly and set it aside. Softly, she said, "Then tell us what happened."

Rey sank into an enormous chair behind a small table with an assortment of glass bottles and grimy glasses that had to have been put there for Chewbacca. She picked up a curvy bottle that sloshed with only a small amount of a pale green liquid. "Ylissian Brandy. Han loved this stuff. You know, when we found the Falcon, this room was deadlocked until he boarded and put in the security key. I bet this brandy has been here since Luke Skywalker and his master took passage on the Falcon."

"What happened, Rey?"

Rey looked up to see Finn standing over her with folded arms. She set the bottle down and turned it so that the label faced her. Instead of looking at Finn, she traced the characters of a language she couldn't read with the tip of a finger. "Ben came here to ask for his mother's forgiveness . . . and to see if she would marry us." Finn snorted and rolled his eyes, but Rey refused to acknowledge him. "It didn't go well, but Ben said he would continue to help the Rebellion and he left."

"He just left?"

Rey glanced at Rose and nodded. "Soon after, I felt something, like the fabric of the Force being twisted and drawn out, and then there was an explosion of power. I think . . ." She glanced at Leia's clothes pooled on the floor. "I think Leia used what remained of her strength to reach out to Ben. She wanted him to know she forgave him and that she loved him."

Finn sank down on the bed beside Rose. "So that's it then. Who will lead the Rebellion now that the general is gone?"

Rey pointed her chin in Finn's direction. "You will. Between yourself and Poe, you have everything you need to rally the men liberated from the First Order and to negotiate with the systems that are ready to infiltrate the First Order hierarchy from within." She shrugged. "It will take time, but you have the seeds of a strong start. If you fan the flames of the Ortuu insurgency, I think you will find more will heed your call."

"What about you? You made all of this possible."

Rey shook her head, pushing her bottom lip out in a resigned frown. "My time here is done. Because of my bond with Ben, few of the remaining Rebels trust me. Besides, something has happened on the Supremacy; I feel a thick darkness gathering that wasn't there before. There's great danger there for him now. Kylo Ren was driven, ambitious, single-minded, and even he was struggling to pose adequate opposition to Hux." She glanced up at Finn. "Kylo Ren is gone, and there's no one there to watch Ben's back."

Finn sighed. "Rey, you've done enough for him. You don't have to—"

"I want to. We can't lose Ben's position within the First Order. Hux's reign would be a bloodbath. Generation after generation in every system will live their entire lives in slavery. Besides, if we lose Ben, we lose the only remaining Jedi in the universe. He's the only survivor of Skywalker's temple. He's the only person able to interpret the ancient Jedi texts, and he's the only person with enough training to start over. If we lose Ben, the Jedi Order will be lost forever." She glanced up nervously before continuing, "He is also the last Knight of Ren; Ben's knowledge of the Dark Side is formidable. I don't know that there are even any surviving Sith; Ben doesn't think so. We need both to find balance."

"You're just going to abandon us." Rose's face crumpled in disbelief.

Rey knelt in front of Rose, begging silently with her heart for Rose to understand. "I'm not abandoning you. I'm going to take our fight into the heart of the First Order and protect our last hope until the Rebellion is strong enough to fight again. You have Finn and Poe, and they are both better leaders that I will ever be. I'm going to do what no one else can. I'm going to save Ben Solo."


	25. Chapter 25

_Ben, I'm coming._

 _What?_

It had been devastating saying her goodbyes, especially to Finn and Chewie. Returning to her quarters, she had dropped the pieces of the Skywalker lightsaber into the pouch on her belt, collected a few remembrances of her time on the Falcon, and clasped Ben's cloak around her throat. She knew that somewhere on the Falcon, Poe, Rose, and Finn's heads were bent in rapid conversation, and before long, one or all of them would be beating on the door of her quarters demanding to talk this through again. She was done talking. Ben was alone on the Supremacy, and she could feel the darkness closing in around him.

 _I think we'd better try this from your quarters, and you'd better help me._

Through their bond, Rey could feel Ben's surprise and unease. _Why are we doing this now?_

 _There's something on the dreadnaught, and it's coming straight at you. Can't you feel it?_

Ben took a deep breath, and Rey could feel him push his feelings out, scanning the fabric of the Force as it was woven between the souls of the dreadnaught. _Are you sure? I can't feel anything._

 _I know it. Whatever it is, it's strong, and it knows how to hide its presence, especially from you._

 _Are you sure you want to do this?_

Rey closed her eyes to the Falcon, and pushed her consciousness closer to his. Within a few steps, she was able to see Ben, and she stepped into his embrace and wrapped her arms tightly around his waist. As she gathered her power and wrapped it around Ben's consciousness, using him as an anchor, she drew further and further away from her physical reality on the Millennium Falcon. Rey began to tremble, and Ben drew her more tightly against his body, pressing her head into his chest.

Rey dug her fingers into the thick fabric of Ben's coat and concentrated on the rapid thump of his heart against her ear. She could smell the cold astringent odor of the dreadnaught, and she locked her every sense on Ben's reality. Rey imagined her toe scraping across the floor of the Falcon, and just as she was about to draw it away, she felt the door to her quarters open, and Finn stood there gaping at her.

She cracked her eyes open, and she could see Finn as though he stood in Ben's quarters rather than in the corridor of the Falcon. Almost there . . . Finn stepped towards her, and she could tell by the horror on his face that he must see Ben. Finn reached out to grab her . . .

"Good bye, Finn."

Rey ripped her toe away from the floor of the Falcon, and a sensation like slamming full force into a concrete wall met Rey's consciousness. With the shock of the impact, Rey released Ben, and she flailed against the barrier. Without warning, it gave way beneath her weight, and Rey felt herself plummeting into nothingness.

 _Ben!_ Rey called out for Ben frantically, and though she could feel his panic as he tried to reach out for her, he was always just beyond her grasp. She heard Ben screaming her name as from a great distance.

 _Use the Force, Rey! It is still there, flowing through you_. Rey recognized the voice of the old Jedi from Tallus Sept, and his calm sliced through her panic.

Rey opened her eyes and saw that though she fell through a great black void, all around her were fine threads of energy. She breathed deeply, forced her heart to slow, and she reached out again for Ben.

 _Let go, Rey. If you want to reach Ben Solo, you must find your own center first._

Rey closed her eyes and breathed. As she calmed her mind, she was able to slow her fall, and she began to feel more in control. Rey sensed that her consciousness had been shattered, without anchor or reference, and she began to draw it back together. As it came wisp by wisp, she realized that the energy threads around her were the same as those within, and as she grasped them and pulled them tighter together. Her fall further slowed, and she sensed Ben's presence drawing closer.

Soon, she felt the familiar warmth of Ben's consciousness within reach of her own, and she pushed herself towards him. Rey felt Ben reaching out, and she could sense that his grip on his own physical reality was precarious, so far had he extended his own consciousness into the void that enveloped her. Finally, she felt the touch of his mind latch onto her own thoughts, and Ben frantically clawed her consciousness towards his.

Rey crashed through a fine barrier that shattered around her like ribbons of glass, but this time, Ben had wrapped his consciousness around her like a band of iron. Every fiber of her body burned and screamed in agony, but she clung to Ben and fought her way towards him. Gradually, the haze of searing pain receded, and she hung limply in his arms, barely supporting herself. Shakily, Rey placed her foot down on the immaculate black floor of Ben's quarters, and the harsh overhead light and a blast of cold assailed her senses as she snapped fully into her new physical reality.

Rey squeezed her eyes shut and pressed her face into Ben's chest while she tried to catch her breath. Her skin felt raw, and the texture of his coat rasped painfully against her hypersensitive skin. She could feel her legs tremble with the effort of supporting her, and her clothes were soaked through with sweat.

"Am I here?"

Ben sighed in relief. "You're here, but it was a close shave. If you'd have tried that alone, I don't think you would have made it."

Rey tried to release Ben, but her legs nearly folded beneath her. Ben scooped her up and carried her the few feet to his bed. After setting her down, he knelt before her and took her face in his hands. Rey had squeezed her eyes shut against the glare of the overhead lights and her teeth were chattering audibly.

"Look at me. Rey! Look at me!" Rey blinked bleary eyes, but finally focused on Ben. "You need a teacher. You've got to let me teach you to control your power before you try to channel the Force like that again. It was all I could do to hold you together as you came across—for a moment, I thought you were gone." Rey nodded and dropped her head against Ben's shoulder, and her head throbbed. Ben spread trembling hands across her back. "Promise me you won't try to travel again without my help."

She nodded and crossed her arms tightly across her chest against the cold as a fit of hard shivering wracked her frame. "I promise. Where else would I go?"

Ben stifled a nervous laugh and squeezed her tighter, his hand against her damp hair. He extended a silent prayer of thanksgiving to whatever powers had allowed her to safely cross the impossible distance that had separated them.

Rey shivered. "I'm ffffreezing! Is it always so c-c-c-cold here?"

Ben gathered the cloak more tightly around her. "Space is cold generally, but this isn't the Falcon. Mother hated being cold, so the Falcon's life support is cranked nearly to the very top setting for both humidity and temperature. I'm not sure how Chewie tolerated it all these years. Here, there are thousands of troops running around in heavy plate armor. If the temperature and humidity weren't kept very low, the storm troopers would drop with heat exhaustion. Why do think I'm always dressed like this?"

Rey cracked an eye open to take in Ben's high-necked quilted coat, cloak, and gloved hands. She let her eyelid drop and shrugged. "To emphasize your natural sense of intimidation and evil . . . ness."

She couldn't see it, but she felt his eye roll through their link, which felt raw and tender. He huffed in annoyed amusement. "Yeah, well, besides that, it's uncomfortably cold on a First Order vessel." Ben stroked a hand down her trembling back, and he continued hesitantly, "Rey, you aren't going to be comfortable in your desert clothes here, and besides, you're wringing wet."

Ben released her reluctantly. She drew the cloak tighter around herself and watched Ben cross to the wall of his chambers and press his fingers against a hidden drawer. When he returned, Ben handed Rey a stack of clothes and nodded towards the nearest door. "If you can stand, you should shower and change. In just a few hours, we will have to endure an audience with Hux, and I expect it to be extremely unpleasant."

Rey looked long and hard at Ben. "We."

Ben nodded. "I can't keep you locked up in my quarters. If you're going to be here, you have to be with me, at least for now. We are safer, stronger together. Isn't that why you came?"

Rey glanced down at the stack of black clothes and spread her fingers across them, oddly touched. They were finer than anything she'd ever owned before; in reality, she could tell they were of even better quality than his. The band of kyber around her finger sparked against the harsh lights. Rey nodded. "That's why I'm here."

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Half an hour later, though feeling stripped and hollow inside, Rey was much steadier on her feet. She found Ben poring over dispatches, a long finger pressed against the monitor as he followed a line of data across the wide screen, and Rey noticed that he had discarded his gloves. When he glanced up, his heart skipped a beat.

"Where did you get these clothes? They fit as though they were cut precisely for me."

Ben sat back in his chair and she could feel through their bond that he was trying press down his bubbling pleasure. "They were. When prisoners are processed, they are scanned for things like explosives and weapons. The computer takes very detailed biometric measurements as well so that they can be positively identified even if their remains are . . ." Rey raised a brow in silent question. " . . . difficult to sort out. I had hoped for some time that you would eventually come to me," Ben looked down at his hands, suddenly embarrassed, "so I had them made for you, hoping that the day would come when you would be here and need them."

Rey crossed the room and bent to wreath her arms around Ben's shoulders. "How long have you had them in that drawer?"

Ben refused to meet her gaze. "I had them made not long after I was assigned to the Supremacy. I couldn't imagine you wearing a First Order officer's uniform, so I had padawan clothes made for you."

Rey turned Ben's face back to hers with a finger on his chin. "Thank you. I'm grateful to be warm again." She broke into an uncertain smile. "Although I think that the entire top layer of my skin has been scoured away."

Ben pulled Rey down into his lap and kissed her. "The way the First Order does things is far harsher than you will be used to." Through their bond, Rey could feel Ben's gratitude that she had chosen to come to him. He stroked a finger across her hand, lingering over the band of crystal. "I hope that the transition won't be too painful."

Rey stroked a thumb over the contour of his face. "It's nothing."

Ben kissed her slowly, gently, savoring her presence. Drawing back reluctantly, he commented, "You need to eat. I can sense that travelling exhausted you." Rey took one of the ration packs Ben had laid on the console and peeled it open. She drew out a thick fragrant orange wafer, but before she could take a bite, Ben snatched it from her fingers. "Not these. Don't ever eat the sweetened ones. These are loaded with chemicals intended to make the storm troopers more compliant and subdue their ability to make independent decisions."

Rey looked dubiously over the rest of the ration pack. "Anything else?"

"No. The rest is fine." Rey tore open a tube of some kind of gelled protein and tasted it. She grimaced at the flavor, slightly bitter and salty, but ate it anyway. Ben grinned in amusement. "The rest of the rations are either bland or oddly flavored, probably to make the sweetened wafers more appealing and ensure that the troops eat them."

Rey shrugged her indifference as she ate the tasteless wafers of dried plant material. "Except for the few times I was successful in catching game on Jakku, I ate First Order civilian rations for most of my life. They're almost identical to these," she poured the powdered bread into the dish of water he had set aside for her, "except without the liquid protein and sweetened wafers. The portions certainly aren't as generous as these though. I doubt I can eat it all—I'm used to only having a quarter or half portion a day."

Ben kissed her solemnly the temple. "Eat it all-you need it. I promise, you'll never go hungry again."

Rey laid her head on Ben's shoulder and watched the bread rise from the dish. She was surprised that the portion was nearly twice the size of the loaf made by civilian rations. Ben plucked it from the bowl and broke it open. Rey was surprised to see that it steamed. He spread something from the ration pack across the bread and handed it to her.

It had become too much effort to lift her head from Ben's shoulder, and her eyelids felt as though they were bolted shut. She guided the bread to her mouth and was surprised at the creamy, salty flavor of whatever Ben had put on the warm bread.

"Mmm . . . what is that?"

"Some kind of cheese. It's loaded with protein and accounts for nearly all the fat in the rations."

Rey's hand floated to her lap, and she turned her nose into the warmth of Ben's collar. She took a deep breath and went nearly boneless with contentment. Her belly was full for the first time she could remember, and with her body pressed against Ben's warmth, she felt safe. Though she'd nearly shattered her own consciousness to do it and it felt as though her body had been pressed through a sieve, as she drifted off, Ben smiled when he heard her last conscious thought. _Home_.


	26. Chapter 26

Ben had laid awake next to Rey for most of the night, trying to put together the pieces of what a life with her aboard the Supremacy would look like. To have her present and committed to him was exhilarating. Considering the constant danger she was under here was terrifying. He equally dreaded the moment when she would have to witness the kind of brutality and force he was required to use to maintain control over the First Order. Since the strength of their bond had flourished, it had become impossible for Ben to harness the kind of rage that had simmered constantly beneath his skin as Snoke's apprentice. Without intending to, Ben had allowed Rey to become his conscience, and he valued her estimation of him far more than his own vice grip on the central command of the First Order.

Though he'd tried to be careful to not wake her, she finally stirred an hour before he'd planned to wake her. _Ben? What's troubling you?_

Ben tried to pull his anxiety away from her consciousness. _I'm just restless. I'm sorry to have woken you._

Rey turned in his arms and burrowed closer into his warmth. _You're worried?_

Ben settled her closer to his side and stroked a hand down her spine. _I'm trying to figure out the balance between who I'm supposed to be, who I've become, and how to keep you safe in the space in between._

Rey probed Ben's consciousness gently, and he allowed her to taste the nature of his concerns. Rey sighed. She rose on an elbow and looked down into Ben's eyes. _I know you will still have to be Kylo Ren here_. Rey laid her hand across his face and stroked his cheek with her thumb _. I know you will sometimes have to be hard and cruel, but I came anyway_. _I never thought that this would be easy_.

Ben tightened his grip around her waist. He searched her eyes, hoping she could understand. _I'm not sure I can be Kylo Ren for them and Ben Solo for you. I'm worried there's not enough of Kylo left to make this work_. _You also need to know . . . in order for you to be safe here, they are going to have to fear you for yourself, separate from me_.

Rey drew back. _I didn't think_ . . .

 _I know. There will have to be some kind of display of your own power very soon, or you won't survive long. Without an anchor on the Falcon, I'm not sure I could send you back. We have to make this work. You're going to have to draw on your darkness, and you will have to learn to keep your true emotions tightly in check, for both our sakes._

Rey laid her head back on Ben's shoulder, now awake and tense.

 _Do you wish you'd not come?_

The black ceiling of Ben's quarters was indistinguishable from the shadows; infinite darkness, receding relentlessly. What was life like here, with nothing but death to look forward to, advancement possible only through violence and death? _I wish this didn't have to be our reality, but I'd rather face this with you than risk you dying alone_. She glanced up to meet his gaze. _This place between us—this is home. Whatever that means, now there's two of us. You're not going to have to bear this alone anymore_.

When Ben kissed her, his gratitude flooded their bond. Rey wrapped her arms around his neck and returned his kisses with fervor. This time, when their comingled desire rose between them, Ben was different. Gone was the shame in the wanting, and his desire flowed hot and frank through their bond without hesitation. Ben neither asked nor demanded. Now, when he touched Rey, the tenderness remained, but beneath it was the confidence and certainty of a man that readily took what was his because he knew it was offered freely.

Ben could feel through her touch and her thoughts that Rey had abandoned any doubts. He saw the certainty in her eyes, and felt the steel in her will, and knew that whatever was to come next, she accepted that his fate and hers were the same. Just as they found solace and pleasure in one another, she was willing to lie down in his grave with him, if that was where their path would lead.

When they rose to meet the storm that was about to break over them, it was with silent determination and a sense of mutual defiance. Before they left his quarters, Ben pressed Rey against him, taking the last breath of her scent that he would be able to risk for many hours. Though he'd tried to tamp down his reaction, he had found the sight of her in the black padawan's robes evocative, equally beautiful and deadly, and he knew she could feel his pleasure seeping through their bond.

Rey stepped back, her hands clasped in his, and when she looked up at him, her eyes blazed with resolve. _We will not fall today. Not today, and not for many years to come_. Rey squeezed his fingers. _I won't permit it_.

Ben nodded wordlessly and turned to face the door that stood between their sanctuary and the threats crouched and waiting beyond. Ben started to reach inside himself for the mask of Kylo Ren, but realized that he didn't need it.

Kylo Ren had been fuelled by hate and misery, motivated by fear and aspiration, his days spent negotiating between a jealous rival and a harsh master. Ben Solo stood defiantly in his place now. Unlike the empty husk that was Kylo Ren, Ben possessed something of real value that he would die for. Ben felt his power, now augmented by and nearly indistinguishable from Rey's, unfurl around and between them. This was who they were together, and Ben Solo wouldn't hesitate to cut down anything that threatened them. Kylo Ren may have been terrifying. Ben Solo and Rey-Okan, inextricably joined mind and body, heart and soul, would be the unrestrained embodiment of the will of the Force itself. Ben Solo didn't need rage. He had certainty.

When Ben stepped through the door of his quarters, he let go of his fear, and once and for all, he let go of Kylo Ren.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Rey followed Ben out of his quarters, her senses prickling painfully. To enhance both of their Force acuity, they had decided to try leaving the barrier between their minds down completely. It would allow Rey to orient herself within the floating continent that was the Supremacy, and she'd have the advantage of being instantly familiar with any officer that addressed them.

Ben was still sorting out how he was going to explain her presence and integrate her into the crew. Since the official story regarding Snoke's death was that she had murdered him, it was going to be difficult to rationalize bringing the Snoke's murderer back aboard. Further, he was unsure how widely Hux had spread his doubts that Rey had dispatched Snoke, the entire Praetorian Guard, and Kylo Ren on her own. He sincerely hoped that the Force would provide its own answer, sooner rather than later.

When Ben led Rey into the Supreme Leader's audience chamber, she hesitated for a moment before following him, a foreboding welling up in her. Ben felt it and turned.

 _Don't be afraid._

Rey glanced at the empty throne and around the chamber. When she had left this place, it had been in shambles, sparks cascading from the ceiling, blood and entrails spattered on the red panels concealing the windows. Rey had had to watch her footing, as the already glassy floor had become slick with blood, and she had nearly tripped on an arm that one of them had severed from one of the Praetorians. She remembered the stench distinctly, the copper of blood, the ammonia of urine, the sweet stench of roasted flesh and singed hair. She'd had to shower several times before she could get the smell out of her hair and scrubbed the blood and gore from beneath her nails. Rey realized that she'd been breathing shallowly through her mouth in anticipation of the stench, and she forced herself to take a deep breath. She was relieved to smell only the astringent odor that pervaded the rest of the ship.

 _I guess that's why everything on a First Order ship is all black smooth surfaces and smells so nauseatingly clean._

Ben shrugged nonchalantly. _There are an enormous number of men with extremely few acceptable outlets for their violent tendencies and sexual urges on a dreadnaught. Things . . . happen. The design certainly takes upkeep and efficiency into account_.

Ben climbed the steps of the dais and looked down at the throne with distaste. When he looked at it, all he could think of were the many hours he had spent cowering below it in either fear or pain. Even if it wasn't far outsized for him, with Snoke standing nearly a foot taller than Ben when he was at his prime, Ben would be damned before he sat in it. Further, he'd not have Rey on the floor at his feet nor standing at his shoulder while he sat. With a flick of his hand, Ben lifted the throne from the dais, and he sent it to the edge of the chamber into the shadows where he need not look at it for now.

 _What should I do?_

Ben sighed inwardly. _Snoke always made me kneel at his feet. Vader was said to have stood at his master's shoulder while he also sat on a throne. I think it will be adequate if you just stand beside me_.

Rey ascended the steps. _Here?_

 _Yes._

 _Do you expect me to call you 'master'?_ Ben could feel her derision, but it was tinged with real fear that that would be precisely what he would want.

 _I'd really rather you didn't_. When Ben felt her relief, he continued, _I'm surprised you would have to—_ he snapped his head up. _Hux is coming_.

Rey stepped closer to Ben, just behind his shoulder. She made a conscious effort to wipe her face and her mine clear.

 _Pull your hood up. It will give you a few more minutes to compose your face._

Rey flipped her hood over her eyes, and had barely enough time to fold her hands before her before the doors to the audience chamber opened and Hux strode through.

As he strode across the bridge leading to the throne room proper, Hux's step and smirk faltered when he saw the second black robed figure behind Kylo Ren. Rey felt Ben's amusement and she could feel that his lips quivered in a repressed smile.

 _It was worth you coming all this way just for that._

Rey didn't respond; she was too nervous about Hux's reaction when he saw her. She noticed that Hux's steps had slowed, and he did not approach with the same confident swagger of moments earlier. When he arrived at the foot of the dais, she could feel Hux's eyes boring into the shadows beneath her hood for as long as he dared, trying to discern whose face was concealed there.

"General Hux."

"Supreme Leader." Hux's eyes snapped back to Ben. "I was unaware you had brought a . . . guest with you when you returned."

"I didn't. My apprentice arrived after I did by other means."

Hux was flustered. "I didn't approve a shuttle landing—"

"As I said, my apprentice arrived by other means, which are not your concern." Ben lifted a brow and cocked his head subtly, as though to ask Hux if he really wanted to pursue the matter further. Hux took a deep breath, and though his color had already started to rise, he made a visible effort to push down his annoyance with Kylo Ren. "I have summoned you here for the express purpose of answering for your treason."

"My treason! It was not I who murdered—" Hux's face twisted in anger. He balled his fists and placed his foot on the bottom step of the dais as though to ascend and challenge Kylo Ren personally.

The moment his foot touched the step, Rey lunged forward, her hand outstretched, and silenced him. She lifted her hand subtly so that the heels of his boots left the immaculate floor, and with the snap of her wrist, she slid him back from the dais several paces. Rey placed him firmly back on his feet, but warned acidly, "You forget yourself, General."

 _Have you ever done that before?_

 _No, but I had an excellent teacher._

Ben hummed softly in approval through their bond. _Can you hold him there?_ When Ben heard Rey's hum of assent, he continued, _Just put enough pressure on him that he knows you're there. It takes a lot of control; try not to push him._

Hux narrowed his eyes and tried in earnest now to see into the shadows beneath Rey's hood. "I'm surprised that after allowing that filthy scavenger from Jakku—"

 _Take your hood down._

Rey didn't have to be told. By the time Hux's tongue touched the word 'scavenger', her fingers had already found its edge.

"—I'd not have believed that you would let another woman—" Hux's mouth hung open when Rey's face emerged from the shadows.

Ben's voice had reached a deep growl. "You were saying, General Hux?"

Hux looked between apprentice and master warily. "You!"

Rey lifted her chin a fraction of an inch, and she gazed down at Hux dispassionately. With their bond wide open, she could feel Ben's consciousness wrapped around hers. His confidence helped to keep her own nervousness and anxiety at bay sufficiently to mimic the same serenity she had seen Kylo Ren display.

"It's really thanks to you, General Hux, that I have chosen an apprentice so quickly. Who else has shown such promise and displayed such power besides Rey-Okan?"

Hux glanced between the two of them and cocked a brow. "No doubt, her talent will flourish under your guidance."

"Unlike some of my subordinates, her loyalty has been unfaltering." Hux snorted quietly, but Ben let it pass. For now. "What is the timetable for the conquest of Urobos Prime?"

Hux took a steadying breath. "We are having difficulty calibrating our sensors to match the harmonics of the shield. It is only a matter of time before we have locked on to their algorithm and are able to predict the oscillations of each tier of the shield."

"When that occurs, will the entire fleet be mobilized to move forward with the attack?"

"Yes, Supreme Leader." Though his tone was civil, Rey could tell that the words were bile on Hux's tongue.

"Keep me informed of your progress. I am deeply disappointed in your blatant efforts to misinform me in the time I was away from the Supremacy."

Hux was barely able to suppress his smirk. "Supreme Leader, you asked that all communiqués be routed directly to you—"

"I received all but the ones that mattered the most."

Ben descended the dais two steps, and Rey felt Hux start to shuffle back. She tightened her fist beneath the long sleeves of her robe, and his feet were unable to leave the floor. Hux glared at her, certain that it was Rey and not Kylo Ren who was restraining him.

"I understand that this transition has been difficult for you, General Hux, but my patience is nearly at an end. If you continue to displease me, I will allow my eager young apprentice to continue to practice her skills upon you." Hux glared at Rey with unveiled malice, but Ben continued evenly, "What she lacks in control, I'm sure you will agree she makes up for in sheer power."

 _Drop him._

Rey crushed Hux to the ground with adequate force that she heard an audible crack. Rey withdrew her power so hard that it almost rebounded into her physically.

 _Ben! I think I broke one of his ribs! What do I do?_

 _Nothing. The medidroids will patch him up in a matter of minutes. It's barely a scratch_. Ben returned his attention to Hux. "I expect that from this point forward, you will restrict your activities to the boundaries of your rank."

Ben descended the dais, and began making his way across the bridge. As Rey followed in his wake, Hux murmured, "Eager indeed," and sneered insinuatingly up at Rey as she passed. Rey flicked down two fingers and slammed Hux's face into the floor, breaking his nose.

 _Was that an adequate show of power for the day?_ Rey didn't like the way it felt to use the Force to cause pain, though she knew by hurting Hux a little today, she'd dissuade him from doing worse to her later.

 _More than adequate. Believe me, it's much more pleasant to learn to use the Dark Side this way than when you are forced to hurt someone you care for_. Rey quailed when he referred to her using the Dark Side. Ben continued gently, _Even Jedi must learn to use the Force for combat. It was part of my training with Skywalker, but his methods were much less practical. You can't always depend upon having your weapon. You will have to learn to use whatever is at hand, even if it means turning an opponent's own body against them. The more you read the Jedi texts, you will see that their methods drew much from the Dark Side, even if they didn't want to admit it. They often confused their personal intentions with the manifestation of the Force._

Ben waited for her to catch him up before he stepped into the corridor. When she reached him, Rey glanced up into his face, drawing her brows down and wrinkling her nose. _Surely, there are other ways you can teach me to control the Force without actually hurting people._

Ben laid a hand in the small of her back to comfort her. _Of course, but there's no substitute for practical application._


	27. Chapter 27

When the doors to the audience chamber slid open, Rey had only taken a few steps before her eyes fell on a petite woman leaning casually against the wall, obviously waiting for them. Rey stopped abruptly. She experienced an odd sense of parallax; Rey felt as though she would see the woman more clearly from another angle, as though she had seen her before, but distorted.

Rey was surprised to note that the woman was dressed much as Rey was herself, with the exception that her overtunic and undertunic were barely adequate to cover her curves. While Rey's obi spanned from the bottom of her ribs to the top of her pelvis, this woman's obi was narrower, further accentuating her form. Rey took in the glossy blonde curls cascading over her shoulders, the teasing smile on her full lips, and arresting pale green eyes. Something about her seemed so familiar . . .

Ben felt the unspoken question in Rey's mind almost as a tickle. When he turned and glanced at the woman in the corridor, he slammed a barrier up around his consciousness by reflex. The woman in the corridor started and blinked. Rey realized that the woman must have been actively trying to probe Ben's mind, though neither of them had felt it. Ben had had to lay eyes on her before he knew to close his mind. Rey glanced at Ben curiously, but made no comment, feeling tension thrum from his side of the barrier.

"Supreme Leader Kylo Ren. Ben." The woman breathed into his given name unctuously, as though she savored its touch upon her tongue. "It's been too long."

Ben haughtily refused to answer, though he eased the barrier around his mind enough to allow Rey to share his thoughts. _Ilfa Ren_. The name came through as a whisper that was more a hiss. When Ben looked at Ilfa Ren, his feelings were nuanced. Wary respect mingled with blackest loathing and tinged with fear. When Rey had stopped in the corridor, Ben had nearly slammed into her, and she could feel his body expand with each breath against her back. Slowly, Rey felt him slide his hand beneath her cloak and insinuate the fingers of his left hand between the small of her back and her belt. Ben pulled her body infinitesimally closer to his. Though nothing passed between them in the bond, his message was clear. Ben wanted Rey well within his much longer reach.

Disappointed that she couldn't draw Ben out, Ilfa Ren turned her attention to Rey, hoping that she would be an easier target. Ilfa Ren's eyes danced with derision as she leisurely took Rey in. Rey found it revolting; she felt like she needed a shower. In acid.

When Ilfa noticed the light saber clipped to Rey's belt, she smiled warmly. "How quaint. You've found yourself a warrior woman after all. I wonder if she even knows how to use it." She clucked her tongue with condescension. "Master Snoke had such high hopes for you. What a shame you've allowed yourself to get distracted by something so . . . unworthy. I heard about the debacle over the droid." She raised her brows and rolled her eyes askance in mock embarassment. "Surely this isn't the same common scum scraped off Jakku that you refused to leave Takodana without." When neither Rey nor Ben rose to the insult, she made a show of coming to her own conclusions. "Hmmph."

Ilfa positively sashayed down the corridor towards them. "It's been years since I've seen you, Ben. You were always so handsome, but my how you've grown." She flicked her eyes seductively up at Ben.

Irrational anger flared in Rey, and it was only with great effort that she kept her mouth shut. Though she was dying to turn and look at Ben to gauge his response, she didn't dare look away from the Knight of Ren, prowling ever closer to them.

Ben tightened his grip on Rey's belt. _Don't let her bait you. She's trying to find your pressure points . . . don't give her any_.

From the corner of her eye, Rey saw Ilfa reach out a hand, as though to caress Ben's arm or lay a hand on his chest.

"Don't. Touch. Him."

Rey hadn't lifted her voice, but the threat was unmistakable. Rey was careful to keep her breathing even, but even so, she could feel the Force thickening the air around her, and it crackled silently the way it did around Ben when he was struggling to contain a strong emotion. She had no doubt Ilfa Ren could feel it too, but Rey didn't have enough control or adequate training to rein it in.

Ilfa winked conspiratorially at Ben as she passed, turning the gesture into a hand curled coyly against the corner of her mouth. Rey caught a glimpse through Ben's mind and felt him shudder inwardly with revulsion.

 _Don't show her where you're vulnerable._

Rey practically growled through their bond. _I know what's mine. She's the one from the temple, isn't she? The one who_ —

 _Yes_. Ben cut off her thought before he had to bear it through to its conclusion.

 _I felt what she did to you. Why did she leave with you?_

Ben drew his brows down, considering. _At the time, I was stupid enough to think she came because of me. Now though_ . . . He followed Ilfa Ren's progress around them with his eyes. _I wonder if she wasn't already under Snoke's control even then. She has a special talent for controlling emotions. Perhaps_ . . .

Ilfa tried another tack. "Snoke has been preparing me for you. All these years, I've watched with admiration as you completed your training and your power grew. Snoke knew you would need someone you could trust, someone to be your right hand."

Ben narrowed his eyes. "No he didn't. Snoke thought I was weak, a failure, a disappointment. He thought he needed me to destroy Skywalker, or he would have disposed of me just like he did the others."

Ilfa dimpled. "Imagine his surprise when you bested him so easily. The student becomes the master. And now . . ." She trailed off suggestively.

Ben snorted in derision. "I'm not looking for a student."

Ilfa Ren had made nearly a full circuit around them, and had stopped to their left. She waved the thought away negligently. "No, of course not. I've been a Master Knight of Ren for years. I think he intended more of a . . . partnership." She smiled sweetly and condescendingly at Rey. "Someone with the strength and grace to complement your raw power."

 _Snoke was going to use her to control you._

Rey saw a flash of Leia, wrapped tightly in Han's arms, laughing. _Too much of my father's heart_ . . .

Ben lifted his chin a fraction of an inch. "Being the Supreme Leader is not a partnership. Absolute power isn't shared."

Ilfa glanced back pointedly at Rey and made a show of trying to conceal the amusement that quivered on her lips. Glancing down, she caught a glimpse of the band of kyber crystal on Rey's hand. Jedi, Sith, or Knight of Ren, anyone who had any familiarity with synthetic kyber at all would recognize it instantly for what it was: a very public declaration from one Force user to another of forbidden love and enduring devotion.

She smiled wickedly, slyly, and she dragged her gaze slowly back up to meet Ben's. "A wife?" Ilfa drug out the word across her tongue as though it was delicious; she savored it, "Really, Ben, we are distracted, aren't we? Maybe that's why our Master sent for me—to help you stay focused. Still, I see no reason for your unusual circumstances to stand in the way. Snoke summoned me, and now here I am, ready to take up my rightful place at the Supreme Leader's side."

Rey lifted a brow sardonically. "There's no room for you at the Supreme Leader's side."

Ilfa smiled sweetly. "Then I'll make some."

Rey hadn't felt either through the bond or telegraphed through his body when Ben had grasped his saber, but he must have known precisely what Ilfa Ren had intended. His foot snapped out and his saber ignited so close to Rey's face that it singed her lashes. When Ilfa's blade slammed against it, he didn't waiver. Ben had released her belt, and his long fingers were now spread across Rey's belly, pulling her close. She could see Ben's face and her own reflected in Ilfa's eyes, pressed together and bathed in the bloody glow of his blade.

"The last time someone threatened my wife," Ben hissed quietly, "I had dozens of natives executed and destroyed the heart of their civilization. Imagine what I'm going to do to you. You really should have known better."

"And you should have known better than to turn your back on me." Ben squeezed his eyes shut, cursing himself, as Hux pressed the muzzle of his blaster against the base of Ben's skull. Ben loosened his grip on Rey. "It was sheer arrogance—"

Ben slammed Hux back against the wall of the corridor, and Rey ducked beneath Ilfa Ren's blade as it slashed towards her. She barely had to desire it, and her lightsaber found its way to her hand, the familiar warmth spreading up her arm. As she spun away, Ben grabbed the collar of Rey's robe and tore it off her shoulders, knowing that if she ignited her saber with it on, it would likely get in her way.

As Rey turned, Hux began firing wildly. Thankfully, the first two shots went wide, and Rey was able to block the others with her blade as she charged towards Hux. Behind her, she could hear the growl of two sabers and the crash when the plasma blades met, but she didn't dare look round to see how Ben fared. Instead, she focused on Hux.

As Rey approached, Hux scuttled sideways as though he intended to barricade himself into the throne room. She had no idea if there were other entrances to the room, but if he escaped her here, he'd be impossible to catch as he wound his way deeper into the labyrinth of the dreadnaught. He'd no doubt return with heavy reinforcements as well. Rey realized that she would never reach him in time to bring him within range of her saber. The next time he edged towards the door, she reached out with the Force and hoisted him off his feet, slamming him hard enough into the wall that she heard his teeth rattle in his skull.

"Now—" Slam. "—that you've got me—" Slam. "—what are you going—" Slam. "—to do—" Slam. "—with me?"

Rey brought Hux close enough to see him. His nose was badly crushed, and blood had trickled down his face and chin. Blood matted his hair and it stood in spikes over his skull. When he leered at her, his mouth was bathed in blood from where he'd macerated his lips and cheeks. Hux saw her indecision, and grinned broadly.

"Your master's busy. You'll have to decide on your own what to do, apprentice. You've got the second most powerful man in all the universe all tied up in a bow. You've won. What are you going to do now?"

Rey glanced at Ben, whose pitched battle had carried him far up the corridor. Even if she dared distract him in the heat of a melee, he had pulled up a strong wall against Ilfa Ren's emotional attacks, and Rey doubted she would be able to get through. If she had any sense at all, she knew that she should just kill Hux and be done with it, but the thought of using the force to snuff out the light that was Armitage Hux was abhorrent. The longer Rey stood there deciding, the broader Hux's grin became.

Finally, Rey settled upon trying to use the Force to knock him out. In her mind, Rey found the thread of the Force that ran between herself and Armitage Hux, and she grasped it. As she squeezed the writhing thread of energy between them, Hux began to wheeze and Rey felt his heart began to falter. Rey's grip on the Force began to tremble. She wasn't sure how far to go . . . in the end, she never found out. A division of storm troopers ran down the corridor in formation, no doubt drawn by the noise of battle. She knew she'd probably regret it later, but Rey dropped Hux in a heap on the floor and fled, following the sound of sizzling plasma blades.


	28. Chapter 28

It had been years since Ben had been faced with an opponent that was already familiar with his fighting style. Fighting Ilfa Ren had always been like chasing a butterfly with a hammer, especially since she never seemed interested in landing a fatal blow, only in infuriating her opponent into making self-defeating mistakes. She was like a cat . . . she preferred to play with her food.

Ilfa turned Ben's slash and danced away further down the corridor, obviously drawing him away from Rey. "She's pretty Ben . . . if you like that coarse, gritty, common type of thing in a woman."

After months of feeling Rey's mind pressed against his own, he'd learned to sense the nuances of the touch of another consciousness. He could feel Ilfa's mind probing whisper soft against his barriers, hoping to find a way in. He grinned maliciously at her, and ran a barbed jolt of energy around the outside of his barrier. Ilfa jerked back and nearly lost her footing.

"She is as lethal as she is lovely . . . you'd be a fool to underestimate her."

She's drawing me out for a reason . . . Ben glanced down the corridor and saw that Ilfa had not only fled far enough down the corridor that he could no longer see Rey, but they had nearly reached the entrance to the main hangar bay. Why? Ben extended his consciousness . . . and found nearly the entire legion amassed in the bay and held there in formation. They were expecting this . . .

"I've wasted enough time here." Ben recalled his blade and flung Ilfa against the corridor wall. He turned to find Rey sprinting through the corridor, the sound of many booted heels echoing behind her.

Ben strode towards the advancing division. "Stand down, by order of the—"

Instead, they opened fire. Ben froze dozens of bolts of laser fire in mid air, suddenly enraged. "I said stand down!"

"Belay that order!" A battered and bloodied Hux strode through the corridor behind the troops. "By Order 22684, issued by Supreme Leader Snoke 12 minutes before his death, Supreme Leadership of the First Order would be transferred to General Armitage Hux upon his demise. This Order was issued in an instant communiqué to all division commanders. I hereby place Kylo Ren and his accomplice under arrest for the murder of Supreme Leader Snoke. Their execution shall be carried out immediately and broadcast on all channels throughout the First Order."

Ben felt Rey draw near, and he opened his mind to hers.

Rey pressed her back against his as Ilfa Ren advanced, twirling her saber negligently. _I'm sorry, Ben. I should have killed him when I had the chance_.

 _I had hundreds of chances to kill him, and I failed every time. If what he says is true, it wouldn't have mattered in the end. Snoke must have known that you would come back to me eventually, and they've been waiting for the opportunity to catch us both. I should never have come back. Get ready . . ._

 _Ben, there's another way_. Ben turned his face to the side in defensive surprise. Of all the voices he would have expected to hear at the end, to hear his . . . _There's a bigger battle to be won here. In your failure, there is hope_ . . .

Rey ignited her blade and tensed to strike. _Ben?_

Ben sensed that he still had more to say, and though he hated himself for wanting to hear it, he knew that if he spoke now, it was with great purpose _. Wait . . ._

 _I was a fool to not see the light in you . . . I see now that you were never a threat. Snoke took you because he knew you were one person that could tear down the entire First Order. He thought he could turn your weaknesses against you, but she made you more powerful than he could ever have imagined. There is still hope to create balance_.

"Let them take us."

"What?" Rey tore her eyes away from Ilfa Ren to try to catch Ben's eye. "We can fight them! There's still a chance we can get away!"

 _Trust him, Rey!_

 _As long as the First Order stands, we will never be free. We're not meant to win this round. Let them take us_. Ben clipped his saber to his belt. He compressed the hovering bolts of energy into a single orb of writhing electricity. Ben reached out both hands, and with an excruciating grip on his will, he compressed it until it fizzled out of existence dispersed through the fabric of the Force. Hux's eyes were wide with shock, and several storm troopers took a step back, bracing themselves. "If you try to strike us down, we will become more powerful than you can imagine."

Hux sneered. "I'll take my chances."

 _Ben?_

 _Trust me . . . it's not over._

Rey pressed her eyes shut and dropped her head back between Ben's shoulder blades in resignation, in bitter defeat. She recalled her blade and clipped it to her belt. When Rey dropped her hands, Ben sought her fingers, and twined hers with his.

When Hux advanced on Ben and reached out his hand to take his lightsaber, Ilfa Ren intervened. "Let him keep it. He knows he's defeated," she smiled slyly, "and he knows why. There's no greater disgrace than for a Knight of Ren to die with his weapon in his possession." Ilfa Ren barked in derisive laughter. "Except maybe for a Knight of Ren to die still armed because he got distracted by some woman." She sidled closer to Ben and sweetly whispered, "From the moment I first felt your eyes on me, I knew that was exactly how you were going to die."


	29. Chapter 29

As they were marched into the landing bay, Ben nodded through the opening. _The whole fleet is gathered here, Rey. All of it._

A storm trooper forced Rey down onto her knees facing Ben. _Do you think we could . . . ?_

Ben gave the soldier holding him a filthy stare, and he backed away slowly. He knelt as close to Rey as he thought they would allow, his eyes boring into her. _We're going to die anyway . . . maybe this was how it was always going to happen. Maybe we were never supposed to live long happy lives together_. The few inches that separated them felt like light years. Ben's lip trembled, and in his face and his eyes were lifetimes of sorrow and misery and regret. _For the few days that you were mine, I'd have died a thousand times over_.

Rey's tears spilled down her face _. Not like this, Ben. There's got to be a way . . . We won't survive._

Ben leaned subtly forward, even though Ilfa Ren coiled her fingers into his hair and tried to jerk him back. _It would take a miracle. There's not going to be that kind of miracle, not for us. You were the miracle, Rey. We are going to have to be the miracle for everyone else now. This is how balance will be won. Just you and me_.

Rey let her love fold around Ben's consciousness. _It was always going to be just the two of us._

Ben nodded sadly _. Yes. I think that it was._

Hux pressed the muzzle of his blaster into Ben's temple. "Finally, this is at an end. Once and for all, the great and mighty Kylo Ren is finally brought down by his own weakness and arrogance."

Ben refused to respond, and instead gathered every scrap of his power together, focusing it on Rey. _Are you ready?_

"If you don't mind," Ilfa Ren mused, "I'd really like to kill the girl first. I want to watch him watch her die. He's so attached to her—it's pathetic, really."

Rey nodded, more through their bond than with her head. _I'll pull them all together_ . . .

Ben tried to smirk back at her. _And I'll tear them all down_.

Ilfa Ren leaned low and whispered into Rey's ear, "I'm going to wear that little bauble he made you the rest of my life. Every time I look at it, I'll be reminded just how easy it is for a woman to destroy a man . . . even when he's the most powerful man in the universe. Believe me, it's going to be around my finger a lot longer than it was around yours." Rey couldn't see Ilfa, but she heard her ignite her saber. "Say goodbye you your sweetheart, Ben."

"I love you. I'll wait for you on the other side. The force is with us, always." _NOW!_

Rey had started the moment the thought had touched her mind. _The entire fleet is gathered here_. She had sent her consciousness out across the web of the Force, racing, racing, picking up every thread. Into a thousand tendrils, falcons chasing after prey, Rey split her consciousness. Rey hated that her consciousness was too split to answer Ben's love, but she knew he felt it flooding through their bond, and her words weren't important.

On and on her thoughts raced. It was a child's game—hop, hop, grab, a step here, slide between those two there, grab three more . . . Too many lights to count.

 _Hurry, Rey!_ She heard the old Jedi's voice, and it was as though time slowed.

In the end, she discovered that she could gather souls to her in great swaths, thousands grabbed in a single reach. By the time Ben had said his last goodbye, Rey had gathered every thread of every soul on every destroyer and dreadnaught in the fleet.

When Rey breathed, it was like breathing through motor oil with an incredible weight upon her chest. Finally the tension broke, and dozens of souls scattered throughout the quadrant breathed with her. In the next breath, a few hundred, and this time, the air was like honey. Sweeter, lighter, shot through with the light from hundreds of souls, breathing into the Force. Two more breaths, and by this time, there were hundreds of thousands. One more breath, and this time, she heard even Hux take a halting breath with her.

Rey had become a conduit, the lens at the center that tapped the Force that flowed through millions of souls, plucking away their will, drawing off their vital connection to the Force . . . and channeling it all back to Ben Solo. The dreadnaught was gone. Hux was gone. The entire assembled legion of storm troopers were gone. All that remained were millions of ribbons of light, filling her vision in every direction. She floated amongst them, and she knew them each by name, could have reached out and plucked individuals at will like the strings of a harp. Their dreams and fears and memories filtered into her mind, and for a few seconds, she was the mother of millions. Amongst them, all that remained was Ben Solo, dark, steady, and strong, and the bond between them.

 _Ben . . . I love you . . ._

Rey held out her hands, and released the flood of power to flow through her into Ben. As it channeled through her, Rey felt only warmth and peace, and she waited patiently for the moment when their flesh would melt away and their souls could return to the Force, still linked and finally complete.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Ben knew that Ilfa Ren wanted him to look at her, that she wanted to have the pleasure of seeing the moment his heart shattered. Though he hated the thought of doing anything at all to please her, he knew that if he could drag out this torture just a few minutes longer, it would give Rey the precious time she would need. He hated that he would have to spend the last few minutes of his life looking at Ilfa Ren, rather than at Rey. Ben watched Rey's eyes lose focus, and when he saw that she could no longer see him, he flicked his eyes up at Ilfa Ren.

Ilfa Ren smiled sweetly, as though he had granted her the greatest pleasure of her life. "How fitting, Ben. Your story is going to end the way it began, with a Skywalker and a Kenobi against the rest of the universe." Ilfa brought her saber high above one shoulder, preparing for her stroke to murder his wife. "Who'd have thought the heart of a Solo would destroy the last vestige of hope for the Jedi?"

Ilfa Ren's stroke never fell. The decking of the hangar began to tremble, and then to shake in earnest. Ben grinned broadly. "My father's heart and my mother's strength. You don't have any idea what you've gotten yourself into."

Ilfa let her saber drop and go out. "What are you doing?"

When Rey opened her hands, Ben reached out with open palms as though to grab something from the thin air, and then pulled them violently back into his body. When his fists slammed into his chest, it pushed him several yards back, and a crater formed beneath him, glowing red. With a roar, he flung his hands out towards Urobos Prime.

Hux and Ilfa Ren followed the direction of Ben's gesture, puzzled. From the open bay doors, the first of the destroyers exploded. From between his clenched teeth, Ben growled, "Tearing the First Order down."

While Ilfa Ren had spoken, Ben had picked out the position of every destroyer and dreadnaught, locating that place in the heart of each vessel where its structural integrity was weakest. When Rey had gathered the collective power from the millions of souls on each ship in the fleet, Ben twisted it together into a single, inexorable wave of energy, and he sent it sweeping in a wide arc around Urobos Prime. The surge of raw power rocketed around the planet and sheared through the heart of every destroyer and dreadnaught in the fleet. One after another, they exploded, a chain reaction across thousands of ships.

Ben knelt trembling, every muscle in his body locked rigid as he directed the massive Force energy that soared through space, slamming into each vessel and shredding it like paper. Hux was forced to watch helpless as ship after ship exploded. Within minutes, the only ship still in orbit around Urobos Prime was the Supremacy.

Ben crawled weakly back to Rey's side. In the chaos that was ensuing outside the Supremacy, they'd been all but forgotten. As millions of souls winked out, Rey and Ben had both felt each death like a mortal wound, piercing them body and soul, and it was taking its toll on them both.

Ben pulled Rey into his arms, and she melted into his body, her head on his shoulder, her body and legs folded up within his own much longer tangle of limbs. Rey surfaced slowly from the forest of souls as it went dark around her, drawn out of her reverie by the warmth of Ben's last kiss. Ben pressed her head into his shoulder and folded his arms and legs around her with what remained of his physical strength, hoping against hope that somehow he could shield them both. _It's almost over. Only one ship left. Goodbye, my love_. Ben felt her sigh of contentment, the glow of her love one of the few lights that still remained in the rent fabric of the Force. With a sigh of resignation, Ben turned what remained of their accumulated power back into the heart of the Supremacy.

By the time Hux turned away from the hangar bay doors, it was far too late to save the Supremacy. He saw Kylo Ren cradling the accursed girl from Jakku and rocking slowly on the deck of the hangar. A searing light emanated from them, and within seconds, the decking of the hangar was torn away, artificial gravity failed, and when the ship's power grid collapsed, the shields that preserved the bubble of breathable air within the hangar shattered. Armitage Hux, Supreme Leader of the First Order, was sucked out into space like so much other detritus. The tiny glimmering speck that was his soul within the fabric of the Force was extinguished, as were two blazing stars, twinned and sharing the same soul.


	30. Chapter 30

Time became meaningless, and it may have stretched on for an age or may have lasted for only the beat of a heart, a breath, the length of a kiss. In that time, there was darkness, and it was complete and cold and pure. There was light, and it was pure and hot and true. The light and the dark were inseparable. There was balance. It was silent, and it was good . . .

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

. . . but then the darkness became red raw pain, and every bone shattered like glass, muscle and sinew were fire. The pain had no name. The pain was a living, writhing beast, flaying flesh from bone. Sometimes the pain shrieked in the shredded voice of a young woman, and sometimes it tore from the raw throat of a man. But always there was pain, and it burned and pierced. It gnawed at bones and it had jaws that dripped with acid and salt. Every hurt was felt twice, and it reverberated as between mirrored corridors, one moment of agony leading into and overlaying the next, a rich fabric of misery unending. It went on for so long that it became an age of existence unto itself.

Voices whispered and echoing through the dark . . . "There they are! Can you just . . ."

A shrieking of metal on metal, and then a hard impact. Pain, always pain.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Trembling hands, reaching out in the dark, the flesh flayed away from the bones, but reaching nonetheless. Bones reached out, searching in the snow, chasing a shadow. _Where is he?_ . . . suddenly flickering lights and panicked brown eyes . . . the wrong ones.

"Is she awake?"

The brown eyes came close. "You have to breathe! I know you can hear me!"

A soul turned away, back into the snow, chasing a spirit flitting between the trees, white and grey, and wide defiant eyes. In the snow there was a chasm, lined with hot shrapnel and molten glass. The chasm was wide, but it must be crossed . . . perhaps it was worth the attempt . . . leaping into the chasm . . .

"We're losing him! He was with us for a minute—what happened?"

 _Ben? Beeeeeennnnn!_ The voice came from across the chasm; deeper . . . she's there . . .

"His heart stopped!"

"Her's is racing!"

"Beeeeeeennn!" A sound ripped from a throat, a demand, a prayer. _He must be in the dark . . . lost in the dark_.

"Is she back?"

"NO! Her heart stopped!"

The snow was thick, but now it was quieter . . . easier to think, easier to see. _Ben? Ben!_ He was just there, crouched in the shadows in the snow . . . his eyes locked on hers . . . and she was ripped away. A scream of agony.

Flailing hands, now whole. The air was cold and made of needles, shoving themselves down her throat and blooming, nails growing roots, blossoming into razor blades.

"Send me back! Send me back! I found him! Sendmesendmesendmesendme . . ."

"Damn it! We lost her again!"

"Get her back!"

A soft voice, like sunlight and broad open plains of grain. "No! Stop! You're going to keep losing her until she finds him!"

Anger. "He's right there!"

The voice shimmered like the wings of a bird. "Look at them! There's barely a scratch on either of them! The problem isn't in their bodies—they can't find their way back to one another's souls!"

Crackling, sizzling silence and light that sheared away sight. "Rey! Reeey!" A body arched in agony, twisting in the boiling light, flailing in the snow, falling thicker . . .

"He's back!"

Chisping . . . she's in the snow. Snowflakes on her hair, catching in her eyelashes, glowing beneath my blade. So beautiful . . . so perfect. She's in the snow.

"Damn it! He's gone again!"

Anger, hot. "Then let him go! Let's just save her!"

The voice like the sun expanded. "No, listen to me! If you lose one of them, you will lose them both! She won't survive without him—she can't! She's not just in love with him—their souls are bound together by the Force. If she survives, she will be an empty husk without him. If you love her, if you want her back, you have to save him too!"

 _Ben?_ Sobbing. Tears freeze into rivers on burning skin. He was here, but it's growing colder. He's here alone in the darkness . . . I won't leave him alone in the dark . . . he's here . . . herehereherehere. _Ben?_

"She's down again. They're both down. Should we let them go?"

"You're not doing enough! She saved all of you! Get her back!"

Showers of gold light, tiny chimes on a red cord in a window. "Listen to me! How did they make their bond the first time?"

"He came to the island . . . they touched . . . Stop! Stop everything! Get them onto the floor!"

"What?"

Strong arms and she was soaring through the cold light. . . breathing in the icy nails and the floor tilts . . . wrong scent . . . wrong arms. He's in the snow . . .

"Now! I know how to save them."

Running in the snow, the snow is deeper, chasing her. _Rey? Reeeeey!_ Grey fading into black.

"They have to touch!"

Crushing pain, and light that bites. "Spirits, he's heavy!"

"Just push him off the table! Get him on the floor now!"

Warmth and heat and light in the snow . . . is that him? _Ben?_ Brown eyes . . . the right ones.

She's so weak . . . _Rey? Rey!_ She was there, kneeling in the snow, and her blood seeped into the earth, and it turned into roots of stone. She was so pale, the light that was within her was so faint. Ben threw himself into the snow, and slid into her.

 _Ben . . ._

"I'm here . . ."

"He's back!"

"She's fading!"

 _We're not dying today. You promised_. She was nearly spirit now, and when Ben laced his fingers into Rey's, he felt both the brush of her skin, nearly petrified with cold, and the harsh wind that blew right through her. The light within her drawing far away. _I won't let you_. Ben lowered his face to hers, and pressed his lips against hers, and he was grateful that they were still warm with the blush of life.

When she tried to draw away into the darkness, Ben held Rey's face between his hands. He pressed his kiss harder against her mouth, and when he breathed in, he drew her light back towards him. Though his own light flickered uncertainly, with his breath, he forced it towards hers. With every breath, he pulled her consciousness closer, pushed his own further away . . . breath after breath, agonizing inch after inch, they came closer until finally . . . they touched . . . and blazed back into life.

"That's it! That's it! They're both back. Their vitals are weak, but I think we've got them again. Let's get them up—"

"No! You have to keep them here—they have to touch until they wake up, or we will lose them again."

"You can't be serious—"

A scuffle, a shot. "Do not test me. I will stun anyone that tries to separate them. Bring your equipment down here. They are staying right here."

Buzzing and probing and the pain receded, but the flame remained, burning away the snow.

"That right there—" rapid tapping on glass. "Does that mean what I think it means? Could she be—"

An exasperated sigh. "It's early days yet, but—I mean, yeah—it's possible. Were they . . . ?"

"Yeah. She's his wife—they were joined by the Force." A heavy warm weight and love pressed close. "Don't you die. Do you hear me?" The voice turned away. "If you let her die, I will personally—"

The voice like sunlight and fruit, "Finn, stop! They are doing everything they can!"

"I'm staying right here. Do not lose them again."

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Heat and humidity and the smell of fuel oil and hot power cells . . . but above all the aroma of her husband pressed against her nose. Rey opened her eyes and looked across the broad black plain of Ben's chest. Finn sat propped against a stack of crates against the wall of the Falcon's cargo bay, one hand holding a blaster pointed unwaveringly at whatever was on the other side of the bay. Beautiful, loyal, sweet and strong and brilliant Rose Tico snored softly against his shoulder, her arms clasped tightly around Finn's waist, another blaster held loosely in her hand where it laid on the cargo bay decking.

"Finn . . ." Rey's voice was thin, like the wind scraping across jagged stone.

Finn glanced down at her and sighed with relief. He lowered the blaster and flicked on the safety. "Don't do that again." He eased out from under Rose and gently lowered her to the deck of the bay. He crawled across the floor. "Are you OK?"

Rey closed her eyes and nodded as much as she was able, but it felt like her mind was lined with sharp stones and jagged sheet metal. "How's Ben?" When she reached out her consciousness, he was there, asleep but strong and whole.

Finn caressed Rey's hair. "He's good. You're both good."

"And the Order?"

"You did it. Every last ship is gone. Command is gone. It's over Rey."

"Mmmmm."

Rey fell back into a doze, but within her mind, she felt Ben's consciousness stir. It unfurled, and though ragged and tattered, broken and smashed, just as hers was, he reformed his mind comfortingly around hers. Together, they were warm, and they were complete. In the dark, there was a spark that shimmered between them, and as their consciousness healed and reformed, it grew brighter. Rey smiled. _No . . . it's just beginning_.


	31. Thank you

Thanks so much to all of you who have read Two Sides of the Same Coin. I'm deeply gratified by your very generous comments. For me, writing fanfiction is all about love of the canon, and it's such a joy to be able to share it with each of you. Taking you on a voyage through my mind is a deep communion between the author and the reader, and I hope you found it as enriching and fulfilling as I did. Thank you for coming on the journey with me. I hope you will allow me to take you on another voyage soon. –AZ


	32. Epilogue

Epilogue

When a hero ends an epic journey, we like to see them raise their glass and drink to the future. We assume that they will settle down to a life of peace and bliss, but sadly, in the ashes of war, there is often no home to return to, no matter how glorious your victory was. Rebuilding after the desolation of war isn't done at the end of a lightsaber. It's done through grueling hours over maps and lists with bad coffee in the small hours, shivering in tents against the rage of a snow storm. Pretty stories make war sound glorious, and the grueling task of rebuilding is ignored, as though cities and crops will spring from the scorched earth beckoned by hope and dreams alone. Treaties are written in blood and dusted with ash. Compromises must be made that turn stomachs, and sometimes what rises from the ashes looks too much like what was torn down. I think people are hoping that Ben and Rey will be able to settle down to domestic bliss. That's not what the dregs of war looks like. If you think it's going to be that easy, you haven't been paying attention. This isn't going to go the way think it's going to. Buckle up.

 **Iron Twilight, Grey Dawn picks up immediately after the end of Two Sides of the Same Coin.**


End file.
